tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9140612503596105113.post5405262270323904459..comments2023-04-07T14:21:19.083+03:00Comments on Decisions and Info-Gaps: Accidental EducationYakov Ben-Haimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10765902456064490854noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9140612503596105113.post-70532857220545948842012-02-20T15:51:45.683+02:002012-02-20T15:51:45.683+02:00A lot of inventions are accidental too, sometimes ...A lot of inventions are accidental too, sometimes you look for a breakthru in one area and you end up with a big breakthru in another.<br /><br />Bertrand Russel in (I believe) "The Outline of Philosophy" mentions an experiment with a monkey in a room and some bananas on a shelf he could not reach. Several pieces of cane were around, all of about equal length, but the bananas were not reachable by any one of them.<br /><br /> The monkey fooled around for hours, tried this and that, all failed, until he had the idea of sticking the narrow top of one cane into the wider bottom of the other and getting a stick of cane stick of about twice the length, which did the trick.Tassos Perakisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9140612503596105113.post-40166508669129767692012-02-20T13:43:33.613+02:002012-02-20T13:43:33.613+02:00The best example I can think of, of finding someth...The best example I can think of, of finding something one did not set out to look for, is when the Indian prince was notified that at some other place in the world than India, Indians were found. He ordered a ship to set sail and find out more about it. The ship, not far away from India yet, ran into an island that had not yet been discovered. The prince called it Serendip. That is where our word serendipity comes from.<br /><br />It must be too obvious to me that I cannot think of why I believe that Truth and Truth alone, will make new discoveries possible in the grand scheme of a research program we once started. It is simply what lets itself be independently confirmed one way and another. So if we stumble upon outcomes that are nice or even good to know, chances are that they fit our research paradigm and are evidence for the Truth of its main- or derivative hypotheses.<br /><br />Randomization is even required in field- or lab experiments, to compare explained variance of new, to that of old hypotheses. It indicates how robustly the new belief or hypothesis can explain what is happening and make us understand how to handle any (dangerous) situation. Theology is part of this, at least in the sense that we control our own fate.Ron de Weijzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05135626951792092605noreply@blogger.com