Karl Popper, the great philosopher of science, once divided the world into two categories: clocks and clouds. Clocks are neat, orderly systems that can be solved through reduction; clouds are an epistemic mess, “highly irregular, disorderly, and more or less unpredictable.” The mistake of modern science is to pretend that everything is a clock, which … Continue reading Clouds Not Clocks Jonah Lehrer
1. It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory–if we look for confirmations. 2. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions; that is to say, if, unenlightened by the theory in question, we should have expected an event which was incompatible with the theory–an event which … Continue reading Science as Falsification Karl Popper
We talk incessantly about “fixing things”, “solving problems” and “solutions to problems.” Marketers love the word “solution”. For simple, even complicated problems, there are solutions. But is it really possible to solve complex problems? There are no solutions to complex problems. There are always unforeseen or unintended consequences. In other words, there are side effects. … Continue reading There Are No Solutions to Complex Problems Just an endless series of responses