No it would not have, debates such as this have gone on in the scientific community for how knows how long, by people with better arguments and greater accumulated knowledge than I could ever hope for and science has continued to function. Some might even say that it is the scientific method.

So, err, it's actually a good thing for these people to be doing their jobs even if some people call it "whack"? I'm not understanding how it can both be "whack" and yet completely essential to the scientific method…

Sorry i don't always make myself clear at times, i was trying to say that open debate is itself part of the scientific method, IE. in this instance the questioning of whether theoretical physics is itself scientific in its approach and that these types of debates have happened all though out history, where the disagreements were much more venomous than me calling them whack, Buckland named fossilized excrement a Coprolite because he thought that the theories of Cope were, well… shit, well i think it turned out Cope was right and Buckland donated his body to the (Smithsonian?) to be the archetype of the human species.

So the term Whack might be unfair, and i do agree that it is essential that we have people like this who are dreaming up all sorts of weird and wonderful things who use a scientific approach, but are they science, i think not. Mostly i see theoretical physicists in the same light as i do say with say new age medicine. You have some lovely theories that are just impossible to test, or specifically with theoretical physics, when someone finds a flaw in your logic, invent something that plugs the gap, ultimately it is the actual testing that makes a knowledge based pursuit scientific.

Case point, When people found flaws in Steven Hawking's black hole theories, he went out and solved the problem by inventing a whole bunch of new dimensions. While the first part of his theories were somewhat testable and in alignment with what we can see and understand in the natural world, his latter solution was not and thus unscientific.

PoppEr would have said that this is unscientific, Feyerabend (might be the wrong philosopher)i think it was would have called it voodoo, nothing more than faith based religion. Actually they both would have been much more critical than i have been.

Well, if you agree that calling it 'whack' is unfair especially when you call it productive and 'essential' at the same time, then I am satisfied…

too the 2 younger gentlemen that have posted i have to say im sorry that you grew up in an era were many idea's and idea's were thrown at you from all sides w/o any real explination . but dont be so quick to blame one side or another , a major problem this country is suffering form is the takeover of the majority of all our mass media but a select rich and powerfull few and the overwhelming tite of resurgent former hippes form the 60's trying to relive there " glory days " an to find some establishment to fight against

we cant assume to have all the reasons ands knowlegde as to why the goverment is doing wht its doing but we do know that the meida and the hollywood elites arent making it easy to get anything done , you wanna blame someone ? blame them all not jstu the one man the media wants to point a finger at
the media ,congress , the hollywood elite, the lobbyiests they all have a hand in everything everyone pulling ten differnt directions so no one can get anything done
meanwhile our men and women are over there fighting to keep us safe , and to help make the world a better and more stable place for the future weather or not youve only been given the short picture understand people HAVE been looking and working twards teh long view


to the gentleman that was injured , I of all people share your pain , i have minimal cartalige surviving in my knee and lost out on a potential olympic shot due to my service to this country . My only regret ? that i didnt get to server her more .
i know your in pain and its easy to want to lash out at the country and the goverment you were serving when the injury was caused but you cant blame tehm . You knew the risks when you signed up and took teh oath .Hopefully with time you will come to a deeper understanding of yourself through this experince . I wanted nothing to do with the goverment and the military after my injury as well , I often felt sorry for myself and got angry over my circumstances , Then i realized that As an adult I have to take responsibility for MY actions and cant blame others for my choices
I choose to serve , I choose to take the risks . I got injured as a result , and I dont blame my country or my government for what happend because it was MY choice .
I've moved on with my life and found success in other areas, and have used my experinces to strengthen my charicter and my resolve I only hope you can in time do the same