Comments on: Learning from science http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647 examining transformative technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: More than the “Emperor’s New Clothes” insight « FrogHeart http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865923 More than the “Emperor’s New Clothes” insight « FrogHeart Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:49:25 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865923 [...] interesting article about how scientists think thanks to a reference on the Foresight Institute website. The article, Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up, by Jonah Lehrer for Wired Magazine [...] [...] interesting article about how scientists think thanks to a reference on the Foresight Institute website. The article, Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up, by Jonah Lehrer for Wired Magazine [...]

]]> By: Titus Quinn http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865919 Titus Quinn Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:59:34 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865919 Grinding yur data 4 phats lol? Grinding yur data 4 phats lol?

]]> By: Valkyrie Ice http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865918 Valkyrie Ice Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:28:10 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865918 This sounds like a job for... The automated experimental robot that made a discovery about yeast and the other one which re deduced the laws of physics from a pendulum. Still, while I suspect that making programs capable of data mining all those experimental notes will take awhile, the tossing out of data for any reason is tragic bordering on unforgivable. The fact that these anomalies exist is proof that we do not yet know as much as we would like to think we do. We may have "good enough" models of reality to garner useful information and make useful gadgets, but the same could be said of the final versions of the theory of epicycles too. The sooner we begin storing all this data for future examination, the better it will be for us in the long run. Every bit of data tossed out is an experiment we will have to rerun in the future. This sounds like a job for… The automated experimental robot that made a discovery about yeast and the other one which re deduced the laws of physics from a pendulum.

Still, while I suspect that making programs capable of data mining all those experimental notes will take awhile, the tossing out of data for any reason is tragic bordering on unforgivable.

The fact that these anomalies exist is proof that we do not yet know as much as we would like to think we do. We may have “good enough” models of reality to garner useful information and make useful gadgets, but the same could be said of the final versions of the theory of epicycles too.

The sooner we begin storing all this data for future examination, the better it will be for us in the long run. Every bit of data tossed out is an experiment we will have to rerun in the future.

]]> By: Al Fin http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865894 Al Fin Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:51:57 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3647#comment-865894 In order to get 1% of today's MMORPG players to spend time and effort mining lab records, data analysis code, and satellite feeds, you would need to formulate the enterprise into a type of game that appeals to MMORPG players. Some people could devise such a game, but not many are capable of it. People like <a href="http://www.climateaudit.org" rel="nofollow">Steve McIntyre</a>, who devote their time analysing tonnes of dry data purely for the pursuit of truth, are vanishingly rare. In order to get 1% of today’s MMORPG players to spend time and effort mining lab records, data analysis code, and satellite feeds, you would need to formulate the enterprise into a type of game that appeals to MMORPG players. Some people could devise such a game, but not many are capable of it.

People like Steve McIntyre, who devote their time analysing tonnes of dry data purely for the pursuit of truth, are vanishingly rare.

]]>