The accumulation of knowledge in science

GuyOnInternet

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Mar 4, 2022
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The major advancements in physics in the last 150 years have been made by people who studied physics at some point in their life prior to making those contributions. If scientific knowledge is not cumulative, why do people need knowledge of the existing physics in order to advance physics? For that matter, why wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed in 3,000 B.C. by an uneducated peasant out of nowhere?
 
The major advancements in physics in the last 150 years have been made by people who studied physics at some point in their life prior to making those contributions. If scientific knowledge is not cumulative, why do people need knowledge of the existing physics in order to advance physics? For that matter, why wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed in 3,000 B.C. by an uneducated peasant out of nowhere?
Some maga fuckup told him his opinion on relativity was a hoax. So he went back to being a peasant.
 
The major advancements in physics in the last 150 years have been made by people who studied physics at some point in their life prior to making those contributions. If scientific knowledge is not cumulative, why do people need knowledge of the existing physics in order to advance physics? For that matter, why wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed in 3,000 B.C. by an uneducated peasant out of nowhere?
The Earth is flat.
 
The major advancements in physics in the last 150 years have been made by people who studied physics at some point in their life prior to making those contributions. If scientific knowledge is not cumulative, why do people need knowledge of the existing physics in order to advance physics? For that matter, why wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed in 3,000 B.C. by an uneducated peasant out of nowhere?

Modus Tollens
 
Modus Tollens
So, tell me why is it neccesary to study the existing physics in order to advance physics? Notice, I didn't say sufficient, I said neccessary. For that matter, why didn't the ancient Egyptians come up with the Theory of Relativity?
 
So, tell me why is it neccesary to study the existing physics in order to advance physics?
Because each advance in science is built upon the progress, understanding and foundations of prior advances, just as you can reach higher apples in a tree from having already climbed part way up the trunk than from the ground, and cannot finish the last 100 mile leg of a journey without having first undertook the first 400 miles already. For instance, we wouldn't know how to build a jet today without having already first learned how to make an airplane. This is all pretty obvious, euclidean stuff to anyone who has any background in science. Do you?

Notice, I didn't say sufficient, I said neccessary. For that matter, why didn't the ancient Egyptians come up with the Theory of Relativity?
Because the very ideas related to space/time curvature and time dilation were entirely outside of their scope and experience from building water ducts and waterwheels and stone buildings. Knowledge and scientific advances are like the framework of a home where you must build the foundation first, then the walls, before you can realize the need for a roof--- without rooms and a foundation to keep dry, a roof by itself makes little sense.
 
Because each advance in science is built upon the progress, understanding and foundations of prior advances, just as you can reach higher apples in a tree from having already climbed part way up the trunk than from the ground, and cannot finish the last 100 mile leg of a journey without having first undertook the first 400 miles already. For instance, we wouldn't know how to build a jet today without having already first learned how to make an airplane. This is all pretty obvious, euclidean stuff to anyone who has any background in science. Do you?


Because the very ideas related to space/time curvature and time dilation were entirely outside of their scope and experience from building water ducts and waterwheels and stone buildings. Knowledge and scientific advances are like the framework of a home where you must build the foundation first, then the walls, before you can realize the need for a roof--- without rooms and a foundation to keep dry, a roof by itself makes little sense.
If scientific knowledge is not cummulative, none of that would be the case.
 
So, tell me why is it neccesary to study the existing physics in order to advance physics? Notice, I didn't say sufficient, I said neccessary. For that matter, why didn't the ancient Egyptians come up with the Theory of Relativity?

I don't think they were measuring the speed of light back then ... so they wouldn't have noticed that time is relative ...

Yes, understanding the heliocentric Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion are necessary to understand what we see ... Egyptians didn't have this understanding, they used the geocentric universe ... and gods moved the planets ... gravity came from Newton ... so we're talking 18th Century AD to even notice such a thing as relativity ... and it was just one thing so it was an easy hand-wave until Einstein needed money ...

Mercury's orbit around our Sun is just fast enough to feel the time dilation effects ... thus Newton and Kepler give bad results ... seconds take longer there ...
 
If scientific knowledge is not cummulative, none of that would be the case.

Knowledge is cumulative ... you have to know what a tensor domain is before you can use field values ... and this is just the basis of modern physics ... and you still need to understand classic physics ...

Knowledge is more like a tree ... there's the basics of language that must be mastered before any knowledge can be learned ...
 
The major advancements in physics in the last 150 years have been made by people who studied physics at some point in their life prior to making those contributions. If scientific knowledge is not cumulative, why do people need knowledge of the existing physics in order to advance physics? For that matter, why wasn't Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed in 3,000 B.C. by an uneducated peasant out of nowhere?
Is someone claiming that scientific knowledge is not cumulative?
 
It would be a gross anachronism to refer to flat earth geopgraphy as mistaken. It is merely incommensurate with later paradigms.
However, if you view the earth from almost anywhere it appears that the earth is flat covered by a dome that allows the clouds, sun, moon, and stars to be viewed as if they were inside of that dome.
 

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