Dr Mel Siff Blog

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Some of you may remember Martin Gardner who wrote many Mathematical Puzzles
and other articles for the Scientific American, in the process becoming
regarded by some as the father of modern skepticism. Michael Shermer wrote
an article recently on him on the web page below. What Gardner said about
pseudoscientists is especially relevant to some of our discussions on fitness
gurudom.

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http://www.sciam.com/2002/0302issue/0302skeptic.html

Here are a few extracts:

And the motives of the hermit scientists have not changed either. Gardner
recounts the day that Groucho Marx interviewed Louisiana state senator Dudley
J. LeBlanc about a “miracle” cure-all vitamin-and-mineral tonic called
Hadacol that the senator had invented. When Groucho asked the senator what it
was good for, LeBlanc answered with surprising honesty: “It was good for five
and a half million for me last year.”….

What I find especially valuable about Gardner’s views are his insights into
the differences between science and pseudoscience. On the one extreme we have
ideas that are most certainly false, “such as the dianetic [Scientology] view
that a one-day-old embryo can make sound recordings of its mother’s
conversation.” In the borderlands between the two “are theories advanced as
working hypotheses, but highly debatable because of the lack of sufficient
data.” Of these Gardner selects a most propitious example: “the theory that
the universe is expanding.” That theory would now fall at the other extreme
end of the spectrum, where lie “theories almost certainly true, such as the
belief that the earth is round or that men and beasts are distant
cousins.”…….

…..How can we tell if someone is a scientific crank? Gardner offers this
advice:

A: “First and most important of these traits is that cranks work in almost
total isolation from their colleagues.” Cranks typically do not understand
how the scientific process operates that they need to try out their ideas on
colleagues, attend conferences and publish their hypotheses in peer-reviewed
journals before announcing to the world their startling discovery. Of course,
when you explain this to them they say that their ideas are too radical for
the conservative scientific establishment to accept.

B: “A second characteristic of the pseudo-scientist, which greatly
strengthens his isolation, is a tendency toward paranoia,” which manifests
itself in several ways:

(1) He considers himself a genius.

(2) He regards his colleagues, without exception, as ignorant blockheads….

(3) He believes himself unjustly persecuted and discriminated against. The
recognized societies refuse to let him lecture. The journals reject his
papers and either ignore his books or assign them to “enemies” for review. It
is all part of a dastardly plot. It never occurs to the crank that this
opposition may be due to error in his work….

(4) He has strong compulsions to focus his attacks on the greatest scientists
and the best-established theories. When Newton was the outstanding name in
physics, eccentric works in that science were violently anti-Newton. Today,
with Einstein the father-symbol of authority, a crank theory of physics is
likely to attack Einstein….

(5) He often has a tendency to write in a complex jargon, in many cases
making use of terms and phrases he himself has coined.

We should keep these criteria in mind when we explore controversial ideas on
the borderlands of science.

“If the present trend continues,” Gardner concludes, “we can expect a wide
variety of these men, with theories yet unimaginable, to put in their
appearance in the years immediately ahead. They will write impressive books,
give inspiring lectures, organize exciting cults. They may achieve a
following of oneor one million. In any case, it will be well for ourselves
and for society if we are on our guard against them.” So we still are,
Martin. That is what skeptics do, and in tribute for all you have done, we
shall continue to honor your founding command.

Dr Mel Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/

For more information on Facts and Fallacies of Fitness by Dr Mel Siff please click here

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