Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!sol!yamauchi From: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Science (was Re: Consciousness) Message-ID: Date: 3 Dec 90 22:46:03 GMT References: <1990Nov9.202525.11717@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <3489@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <15724@venera.isi.edu> <1990Nov21.045833.11768@mentor.com> <1990Dec2.201517.10777@watdragon.waterloo.edu> mikeb@wdl31.wdl.fac.com (Michael H Bender) writes: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) wrote: >The fact that science is useful for developing new technologies is >what separates it from superstition, religion, philosophy, art, and >politcs. ... I would argue that, to a large extent, >technology is what "validates" science. to which cpshelley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) writes: .... A big difference between the two approaches however is that science refers in reality to two criteria of explanatory suffiency: 1) rigour/consistency and perhaps minimalness (formal adequecy), and 2) elegance and intuitiveness (informal adequecy). .... Cameron -- I think that your description of science is wrong. It is my understanding that science can be viewed as a body of knowledge which can lead to RELIABLE predictions about the physical world. In other words, science is REPEATABLE. Thus, the relation between technology and science is clear -- technology NEEDS science because science ensures that the results of the technology will be predictable. E.g., no one would build a space shuttle before having a reliable theory concerning the nature of space (such as vacuum, gravity, radiation, etc.) Actually, in some cases, technology predates science -- catapults were built prior to Newton's theory of motion; sailing ships were built prior to theories of fluid dynamics. However, the fact that science generates predictions which are reliable and repeatable allows people to build highly complex and/or precise machines which make use of these predictions. (In the case of AI, I think we're still in the sailing ship era...) -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Computer Science Department _______________________________________________________________________________