Josh of cartoonsbyjosh.com writes:
See Judith Curry’s great post about what looks like an interesting new book by David Weinberger Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room.
Feels like familiar territory.
Here’s the cartoon:
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Oh no! Gavin clones!! The bricks will cover us all.
> Great as usual Josh.
Are those Manns or Gavins? They remind me of this.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9x0iSiZpERo/TbV5ov2S-pI/AAAAAAAAAho/kpMw2vdmWm8/s1600/elbonia.jpg
Trying to return to the topic…. The Amazon description of the book begins: “We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts.”
Well, actually that was only true for a short while in certain circles. Roughly speaking, it was true in the 20th century among educated people in a few rich countries.
Nearly all humans through nearly all of history got their knowledge from direct observation, or by verbal and experiential teaching from parents and other elders. I suppose you could class the elders as “experts”, but they weren’t licensed by universities or governments; they were trusted because their advice turned out to be true.
In other words, it was all experimental, tested in various ways, How-knowledge.
The 20th century trusting of books (What-knowledge) and credentialled celebrity experts (Who-knowledge) was a temporary aberration, and we’re starting to return to a more sane respect for How. Thank God.
[This might be Weinberger’s point anyway, but I didn’t get that feeling from the reviews at Amazon.]
Quantum Manns! Oh Noes!!!
Reblogged this on pindanpost.
Someone must have felt that the Good Ship IPCC was under-manned…
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Andrew says:
January 10, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Seeing that cartoon reminded me of one of my favorite old brain teasers…”If you were in a room and all four sides were facing south…and a polar bear walked by…what color is the bear?”
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I’m being just a little nit-picky, but you put the punch line in your riddle. It should read: “If you were in a (rectangular) room where all four sides were facing south and a bear walked by–what color is the bear?” You had to deduce that you were at the North Pole and that the animal was a polar bear. The color of the bear then follows.
Jim
I’ve noticed this idea appearing on “skeptic” web sites. Its the, “oh no its too complicated for us to understand” idea.
The knack, of course, is to work out what is knowable, and go after it. Thus far climate scientists and their models seem to be doing pretty well.
clipe says: January 10, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Polar Bears aren’t white.
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Thank you for pointing this out. Calling Polar Bears “white” is to denigrate their ethnicity. They are “Ursus-Americans”!
(Well, Ursus Maritimus – Americans to be more correct. Not to be confused with Ursus Arctos Horribilis – Americans who have even a cooler name!)
Regards,
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin)
Nope. That requires eliminating Antarctica, or at least dragging it off the South Pole.
I’d say “You have to be joking!” but you clearly aren’t.
Climate scientists and their models are first and foremost doing pretty well at demonstrating that climate’s definitely far too complicated for THEM to understand. That’s why they restrict themselves to toy model ‘scenarios’.
Under their translucent, hollow fur hairs their skin is black. The fur maximizes SW transmission to the dark skin, but blocks IR outgoing. Very clever, those bears!
Otter says:
January 11, 2012 at 1:35 am
“Someone must have felt that the Good Ship IPCC was under-manned…”
It’s from the outlook post in the bow of the Titanic.
Brian H says: January 11, 2012 at 11:06 am
(Ursus Maritimus, AKA Polar Bears)……… Under their translucent, hollow fur hairs their skin is black. The fur maximizes SW transmission to the dark skin, but blocks IR outgoing. Very clever, those bears!
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Dang! That sounds suspiciously like they are Global Warming Bears! Does Al Gore know about this?? No wonder they are all going to drown. The Bearskin Greenhouse Effect is going to turn them into fireballs which will melt through the ice! Maybe all the way to China! It’s much worse than we thought!
The Horror of it All is giving me palpitations!
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin)
In the Embiggening, there was the IPCC, which created Mann to worship It.
Nah. They’re very selfish bears; they keep all that heat to themselves. That’s why they get so fat; it’s an ursine function of E=mc^2, or m=E/c^2, expressed as blubber. Under extreme cold-stress, they can reverse the process to walk on water!