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200 - Socks and Crocs (rebroadcast)

You Are Not So Smart

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The Ladder of Scientific Understanding

There are three or four levels of scientific understanding. The first level is description say I describe what's out there just like Aristotle described beetles and all the bugs in the world. Explanation is a second level but the explanation is post hoc it's like oh I explain things that have already happened. A third level which is prediction I predict that if we do X Y will happen so for instance if we can go to the moon we probably understand gravity If we can nuclear reactor we probably understand you know nuclear physics pretty well. This has been recognized for a long time now, the full full understanding is if you can just create diff to create the effect That's what the full to highest level

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