13/10/2019

The Starmaker


Doctor D. Messking is a prestigious astronomer (he has an academic title and a prominent beard). But he is also a little dirty. During decades he worked cataloging stars methodically.

One day a SPECK OF DUST landed on the lens. 

His routine job didn’t help to spot the mistake. He included the new star in the catalogue. He shared his work with the scientist community. Then influential publishers distributed thousands of books. Those books were read by other scientists, teachers, etc. Soon students were obligated to learn the new star. Eventually these kids will procreate and will transfer this knowledge to their children. And so on.

This is an example of how humans perpetuate knowledge. They are specialist in sharing all kind of information, a top skill they can do better than any other animal. Sometimes not many are involved in the details of a discovery but they trust other people in a blind faith mode. That faith starts in the family, teachers and then continues in books, news and ends in the "specialists", the owners of the complex knowledge.

Same as in religions and other no-logic methods, science could also make the mistake of belief. Many scientists never participated in the experiments they believe. Most of the teachers even don’t know the source of information. The wheel continues by its own. 

Despite the development of basic logic, some people's brains use to be confused even in the clearest points. Maybe trust is a positive human trait, useful for evolution anyways. Or maybe it's all wrong and the rest of the species do it even worse than us.



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