Stargazing Guy

– Carl Sagan’s Fine Art of Baloney Detection, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Half way through this thread and so far you have got the facts (1 of 10), you had a substantive debate (2 of 10), you know how to treat arguments from authority (3 of 10) and most recently you know you need to have more than one hypothesis (4 of 10). Onto number 5:

Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours.

It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.

You want to try and prevent yourself getting too attached to a hypothesis – if the facts don’t fit, if the experiment doesn’t work, ditch the hypothesis – assuming the experiment is set-up correctly.

If your hypothesis is that apples will fall to the ground then you need to confirm that occurs and if there are any outliers (apples that float). Other hypotheses might include apples rise, apples fly off to the North for 1 mile (or 1 km) and then fall, etc.

Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sign_%22Please_beware_of_falling_apples%22_-geograph.org.uk-_4360737.jpg

Future blogs in this thread about the baloney detection kit will include the importance to quantify, of the chain of logic, of simplicity and whether the hypothesis is falsifiable.

PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Contact Stargazing Guy for any copyright-related requests or queries @ stargazer1@stargazingguy.co.uk