(urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS

[Gerry Quinn]

From: António Pedro Marques 

Jeff Wilson wrote (23-12-2011 05:42):

> > You're overlooking reproducible results. Preindustrial crop hexings are
> > not reproducible by witches, while electrons are tamed well enough that
> > we can reproduce Zeus-strength lightning as necessary and prevent it from
> > striking houses when it occurs naturally.

> It may be so, but we could do much of that with classical science. 'Our 
> Theory of Gravitation is as good as perfect', ironical or not, was written 
> in the first half of the 19th century. 'We' got to the Moon without the 
> fancy computers and mobile communications of today. Current science may be 
> impresssive in comparison to that of just a few decades ago, but it doesn't 
> follow that it has a technological import of the same magnitude. At the end 
> of the day, it works better than praying to Zeus, but so does Classical 
> Physiscs. 
Yes, but classical physics *is* part of modern science.  Our understanding is deeper now, but we still use Newtonian gravity over 99% of the time because the equations are simpler and it’s more than accurate enough for most purposes.  The same applies to Newtonian dynamics; 99% of the time you don’t have to care about relativistic mass increase with velocity.  A million years from now, Newtonian gravity will still be applicable if there are humans on Earth.  [Newton himself knew, by the way, that his theory wasn’t quite there – he accepted instantaneous action at a distance most reluctantly because he could find no way around it.  That’s been fixed now, though general relativity is still under persistent challenge (even special relativity is under an unusual degree of challenge at the moment from these neutrino experiments).  If GR is superseded, it will still be useful in many domains though, because it’s a safe bet that the equations of the more accurate theory will be even harder.]
Zeus and witches are an entirely different kettle of fish.
> For the common man, it's a matter of having access to services. 
> This is a matter in which I find myself in complete agreement with Lee - 
> '[y]ou have never seen an electron and you have not done original research 
> on the subject', '[e]lectricity seems to work so you believe the experts who 
> tell you how it works' express very well my own view on the subject.
The experts don’t just tell me how it works, they produce extensive and consistent mathematical models covering a wide range of domains and invite me to pick holes in them, or carry out any experiment that might invalidate them.    
Lee is spouting a tired old argument which uses cultural relativism to assail all notions of objective truth.
- Gerry Quinn
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