Re:Rechanneling Beliefs: How information flows hinder or hel...
by pdonis on Thursday June 10, 2021 @10:37PM
(#27468734)
> the process by which one conceives, tests, refines, reviews with peers, and converges on settled models and practice as in engineering is one of consensus.
No, it isn't. It's one of testing and evaluating the results. That is an objective process; it does not require consensus. If I have signed off as the engineer of record on a bridge, and someone asks me for the basis of my doing so, I'm not going to say, well, I had a consensus. I'm going to show them my measurements and calculations.
The same goes for models. If someone asks why I believe that the structural engineering model I used to design the bridge is valid, I'm not going to say, well, the consensus of engineers says it's valid. I'm going to point to its track record of past correct predictions.
> Like, again, the consensus that smoking is bad for you, right?
I don't believe smoking is bad for me because there's a consensus. I believe it because I've looked at the evidence and how it was gathered and used my own judgment and common sense. (Plus the fact that just the smell of cigarettes, when my dad and grandmother smoked them while I was a kid, made me feel ill.) That's what every citizen of a free society should be doing.
No, it isn't. It's one of testing and evaluating the results. That is an objective process; it does not require consensus. If I have signed off as the engineer of record on a bridge, and someone asks me for the basis of my doing so, I'm not going to say, well, I had a consensus. I'm going to show them my measurements and calculations.
The same goes for models. If someone asks why I believe that the structural engineering model I used to design the bridge is valid, I'm not going to say, well, the consensus of engineers says it's valid. I'm going to point to its track record of past correct predictions.
> Like, again, the consensus that smoking is bad for you, right?
I don't believe smoking is bad for me because there's a consensus. I believe it because I've looked at the evidence and how it was gathered and used my own judgment and common sense. (Plus the fact that just the smell of cigarettes, when my dad and grandmother smoked them while I was a kid, made me feel ill.) That's what every citizen of a free society should be doing.