That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
Comment on average physics student vs POTUS 47
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 months agoFeynman was a bit pedantic sometimes.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I mean one of the points he’s making there comes up in every good science class: science doesn’t answer ‘why’ it answers ‘how’. The goal of science is to describe what we see in the world; science less about explaining things. Its easy to do without being a pedant. He’s absolutely being pedantic on camera in that clip.
Like if you look at how people treat science now: MAGA completely pissing on it because its funded by snake oil people. Rich guys like Elon Musk cynically using it as a way to bilk the public and government. The press just has different goals than the scientific community and I would say that clip showed some of that friction manifest.
AstralPath@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I’d expect nothing less from a scientist. Decrying pedantry from a scientist would be like decrying financial accuracy from an accountant.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 1 month ago
When its warranted yes, the pedantry is a plus.
The gift of a talented pop scientist is to know when to turn on and off the pedantry.
oce@jlai.lu 2 months ago
This seems to be easily said of anyone trying to popularize science philosophy.