[HN Gopher] The David Peters Problem ___________________________________________________________________ The David Peters Problem Author : apsec112 Score : 15 points Date : 2020-07-26 07:29 UTC (15 hours ago) (HTM) web link (tetzoo.com) (TXT) w3m dump (tetzoo.com) | geofft wrote: | I don't know anything about paleontology or zoology, but this | general class of problem resonates with me. What do you do about | people who are good at saying things confidently and quickly | while you, in accordance with the norms of reliable science, want | to say things slowly and tentatively after lots of research? | | This is the old "A lie can get halfway around the world before | the truth gets its pants on" problem, but exacerbated, I think, | by modern communication. While it's genuinely good for science | and for human knowledge that anyone can type up something on | their blog and have it instantly readable to everyone around the | world, and while it does open the possibility of a more | meritocratic approach to science than journals controlled by | established academics, we haven't really figured out how to apply | our own skeptical eye to everything that we see in place of the | traditional systems of review. And while others in the community | technically can respond with "I'm not sure this is true yet, but | my gut says it might not be, I'll spend a few days investigating | it and let people know," it's unlikely to get anywhere near as | much attention as the original flashy claim. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-07-26 23:00 UTC)