| I think that there really is a need for the general public to know what science IS. How it came about, how it works. Unfortunately, for that to happen at the level it needs, there needs to be a change in how Education works everywhere. We are still using a 19th century tool designed for a very different context. Maria Montessori tried to bring the tool into the 20th century about 100 years ago but who is trying to do the same for the 21st century? The way I found it explained best was in an Alan Kay presentation where he spoke about the insight Francis Bacon got into the fact that the brain works in a faulty way and what to do about it. Scientific thinking is how we get around the very well documented [1] array of cognitive biases. Learning about those biases in ways that a) makes them obvious, b) provides ways to compensate might make a person able to detect them early and to approach them in the proper way. Another wonderful tool I found is Chris Argyris's Ladder of Inference. Trouble is that this kind of tools need to be inculcated at a very early age so they get used and become second nature to the person. Learning them later in life is a heck lot more difficult, especially when they conflict with fundamental aspects of one's identity. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Cognitiv... |
