Neil DeGrasse Tyson is My Hero
The Balancing Power of SCIENCE
While I am not a morning person in that I’m not ready to engage with the outside world, I do appreciate the mornings because my brain downloads fresh perspective in the morning. My best brainstorming occurs in the morning. My curiosity is often piqued in the morning. In the mornings, I usually find something intriguing or inspiring to set the tone for the day. And this past Friday, I stumbled upon a TikTok video that led to watching the full YouTube video of renowned scientist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, making a response video to acclaimed actor, Terrence Howard’s comments on Joe Rogan’s podcast. This video gave me so much life!! I watched it twice right then and there. And to prep for this piece, I watched it for a third time pausing along the way in order to expound further on the various cogent points made by Dr. Tyson.
So what was so marvelous about what Dr. Tyson (NDT) said? Well in the moment I went online and shared my reaction.
In addition to the perfect balance of delivery and substance, it reinforced for me that science is indeed a balancer. Before I get too far gone, let me quickly remind everyone of what a balancer is.
So how is science a balancer? Of course you can watch the full 17-minute video or you can read my summary of seven points NDT made with my commentary sprinkled in. Let’s go!
But first I do want to be circumspect and say that I very well understand there are limitations to science. As I have stated previously, “Not everything undergoes rigorous study. Some studies are never initiated, aka funded, for fear of what the research will uncover. Research in and of itself is fairly expensive. And many solutions may indeed be valid but have yet to undergo the necessary examination to prove it’s reliability for larger sample sizes.”
Speaking of reliability…
Science is about the “reproduceability” of results. Validity and reliability are the name of the game. You cannot have one without the other. In the market place, we’ve become numb to the disclaimer of individual results may vary. If you want the scientific stamp of approval, then those variances can’t be too large. At the very least, there needs to be transparency around any variances or success rates, so that people are making informed decisions.
The scientific stamp of approval comes from the peer-review process. The platform for acceptance of ideas is not social media. New ideas are contested through the peer review process to be proven objectively true or objectively false. It is a huge red flag when people are not willing to stand before their peers. They are probably afraid because deep down they know they are indeed not a peer and they will be exposed as such.
We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom. ~Tony Robbins
Restless and active minds are great. But active minds can also be misguided minds. It is very easy to make underlying assumptions that are under-informed, misinformed or simply false. Any conclusions drawn from these assumptions are null and void.
False confidence is very real and has been studied. It is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. A key feature of this effect is knowing enough to think you are right but not enough to know when you are wrong. We often stop and even go to market at our peak confidence but that’s also the time when our experience and wisdom are low. We’re supposed to continue learning and investigating until we have enough knowledge to know when we are right and know when we are wrong.
There is nothing wrong with a failed idea because other people will know not to try it. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask the question am I making an assumption that has already been proven false?
Smart people modify their worldview to fit the facts.
Science works because ideas are put through the wringer. Crazy ideas are not necessarily wrong but they are met with caution. Caution that is often misunderstood as needless resistance. Caution is necessary because the stakes are often high, including matters of life and death.
Before the invention of the telescope and microscope, the truth was considered to be what seemed right to the senses. Yet even with modern science, many are afraid of the scrutiny. Humanity is plagued with a deep-seeded fear of being proven wrong.
From the video we see that Terrence Howard’s response was a very emotional and defensive one, which is how people often respond to unfavorable feedback. In full transparency, I did not watch Terrence’s full episode. I feel comfortable that I got the gist of his take on NDT’s feedback. I also feel comfortable that NDT’s response was reflective of his integrity as a scientist even though in the video he did not walk us through every piece of feedback he provided to Terrence’s 36-page treatise. I am open to being wrong as well.
Never would I have imagined Terrence Howard’s name to be in the same sentence as NDT. Their areas of expertise are simply different. There was no logical reason for me to think the twain shall ever meet. Logic, such a dirty word to many and for the life of me, I don’t understand why it is such an aberration nowadays. Yes, as one whose brain was mathematically trained by way of an engineering degree, my default is logic over intuition. At the same time, I’m in awe of those whose intuition was later proven to be correct.
Yet many are afraid to visit the proving grounds of science. Societally, intuition is celebrated over logic. Perhaps it’s more awesome, spell-binding and sexy. Intuition is pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge. There is something about being untaught and possibly correct that people gravitate towards. We are presently living in an anti-guru culture. I don’t want to completely sum it all up as people seeking shortcuts in life. For better and for worse, capitalism allows for shortcuts and most people are just trying to make a better life for themselves and their families.
At the same time, what I believe to be behind the fear of scientific rigor is a lack of humility. Humility in and of itself is a balancer. I swear humility is the solution to all the world’s problems. One day I’ll elaborate further in another post. For now I’ll close out by refining point #6. Not only does science work because ideas are put through the wringer, science works because scientists are humble enough to allow their ideas to go through the wringer.
Onward to science and Harmonious Balance, my friends!
Johanna
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Thoroughly enjoyed!