It really depends on which scientists you confer with. I would hesistate to say most, and few are actually as philosophical as you and I are. Many are bench scientists who are interested in furthering their careers, and getting pats on the backs from peers, so they can get sweeter grants. At least that's been my experience. A lot of these guys and gals (scientists)would know Popper as the inventor of that taste treat the hot jalepeno' Popper. They area average people with above-average math skills and curiosity. in other words, normal but talented. Not too many Moravec's or Drexler's (sigh).
In a message dated Tue, 6 Jun 2000 1:23:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> writes:
<< Spudboy100@aol.com writes:
> In a message dated 6/5/00 4:28:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time, asa@nada.kth.se
> writes:
>
> << This discussion brings up an interesting problem: what can we say
> about the large scale character of physical law? Is there any way of
> estimating the complexity of the rules making up the universe, or
> whether there are magic physics out there? The first case seems very
> hard to answer, especially since we cannot base an answer much on what
> we have discovered so far, since that nmight be heavily biased by our
> parochial mammal-water-carbon-planetlife outlook. The second at least
> can be answered if we notice big anomalies elsewhere.
> >>
> That's why I am usually hesitent to proclaim most physical 'laws' and
> theories absolute.
>>I was not referring to what *we* consider physical law, I was
referring to the actual rules (if any) the universe follows.
Most scientists are acutely aware of the limitations of our knowledge
and agree with Popper about the tentative nature of all scientific
"truths". But things usually get distorted when people report them.<<
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y >>
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