Re: Hard Sci-fi?

On 2008-05-09, Tue Sorensen <sorensonian@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Science is something more abstract which proceeds from a cultural
> context, and requires independent confirmation. You are *only*
> allowed to call your work "science" if an existing scientific
> community regards it as science.

In practice, I accept that as a reasonable rule-of-thumb criterion for
sorting "likely science" from "likely non-science".

However, I quite strongly disagree in principle.  A lone dissenter can
do science, if their work is reproducible and falsifiable (whether or
not it is actually confirmed).  An existing scientific community can
be misled, or even mislead themselves, into thinking a given piece of
work is science when it's nothing of the sort.


- Tim