But it was denied by the scientific community when I saw it.
Ball lightning isn't something new. It isn't something that just recently started. It's not been going on for only a few thousand years. It's always happened. Just not that common.
And all we had is eyewitness testimony until the right eyewitnesses admitted seeing it.
Ah, mahakal. Look at the variety of types of 'ball lightning' and look at the effort to clarify different experiences and sightings. Tyson is just showing the incoherent tangle that semantics creates. He's not saying you yourself cannot rely on your eyes, he's saying for SCIENCE to understand it, eyewitnessing is not enough. People witnessing the same event will see different things. Science demands explanations, the ability to recreate it or the physical proof that something happened. It needs to truly understand it. That's why gravity and evolution are still called theories. They don't have all the facts and therefore will not shut the door on more of them, which might just change everything we thought we knew about gravity or evolution.
Some scientists kill dead the ecstatic joy of the mysterious and insist on making knowledge dry and unexciting. True scientists love a mystery because it proves there are things out there which we will never understand... but will always be a wonderful challenge as we attempt it.
And Ole Phat Stu.... I've had more than a few of those brain failures!
3 comments:
Wow, ignorant.
I saw ball lightning.
It was unidentified until it was identified.
But it was denied by the scientific community when I saw it.
Ball lightning isn't something new. It isn't something that just recently started. It's not been going on for only a few thousand years. It's always happened. Just not that common.
And all we had is eyewitness testimony until the right eyewitnesses admitted seeing it.
Optical Illusion? Brain failure!
ROTFL, 'cos it's so true :-)
Ah, mahakal. Look at the variety of types of 'ball lightning' and look at the effort to clarify different experiences and sightings. Tyson is just showing the incoherent tangle that semantics creates. He's not saying you yourself cannot rely on your eyes, he's saying for SCIENCE to understand it, eyewitnessing is not enough. People witnessing the same event will see different things. Science demands explanations, the ability to recreate it or the physical proof that something happened. It needs to truly understand it. That's why gravity and evolution are still called theories. They don't have all the facts and therefore will not shut the door on more of them, which might just change everything we thought we knew about gravity or evolution.
Some scientists kill dead the ecstatic joy of the mysterious and insist on making knowledge dry and unexciting. True scientists love a mystery because it proves there are things out there which we will never understand... but will always be a wonderful challenge as we attempt it.
And Ole Phat Stu.... I've had more than a few of those brain failures!
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