Complex Numbers

My Baloney Has a First Name...

Today's article is more about reading than about my comments. But of course, I have comments, too.

The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking  
Necessary cognitive fortification against propaganda, pseudoscience, and general falsehood.

This article is over seven years old. I only wish more people had read it before... well. You know.

Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934–December 20, 1996) was many things — a cosmic sage, voracious reader, hopeless romantic, and brilliant philosopher. But above all, he endures as our era’s greatest patron saint of reason and critical thinking, a master of the vital balance between skepticism and openness.

I never read much of his stuff, and only saw a few of his videos, but I guess you could say he was an inspiration for me. I wouldn't call him a saint, though. It's not a good idea to elevate people like that. Besides, have you seen what passes for a saint lately? No thanks.

In a chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan reflects on the many types of deception to which we’re susceptible — from psychics to religious zealotry to paid product endorsements by scientists, which he held in especially low regard, noting that they “betray contempt for the intelligence of their customers” and “introduce an insidious corruption of popular attitudes about scientific objectivity.”

At the same time, though, scientists have to make money somehow, and they're certainly not going to do it by stashing mircochips in vaccines or hoaxing us into believing the planet is round and global warming is an existential hazard.

Because they're not doing either of these things.

Through their training, scientists are equipped with what Sagan calls a “baloney detection kit” — a set of cognitive tools and techniques that fortify the mind against penetration by falsehoods:

Ideally, yes. In practice, some slip through the cracks. But one doesn't have to be a scientist to use some of the tools.

The article goes on to list the actual thinking methods involved. I've highlighted a few of them in here before.

Just as important as learning these helpful tools, however, is unlearning and avoiding the most common pitfalls of common sense.

I've come to the conclusion that common sense is neither. It's often wracked with nonsense, and everyone's idea of "common" is different. Science tries to get past that and into some sort of objectivity. Often, its conclusions defy common sense, and yet are still true, to the extent that anything can be called "true."

I'd encourage everyone to read the next section, because it lists a bunch of fallacies that, in order to avoid, one must recognize. They're important, and I know I need to be reminded of them repeatedly for some of them to sink in.

The Demon-Haunted World is a timelessly fantastic read in its entirety, timelier than ever in a great many ways amidst our present media landscape of propaganda, pseudoscience, and various commercial motives.

And one of these days, I really should read that.