View Poll Results: What is the main purpose of science?
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 08:27 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
 What is the purpose of science?
I have heard many view points lately about what science should be trying to achieve and what it shouldn't.
Instrumentalists believe that science should only be a tool for providing predictions about the future behavoir of a system. They also believe that it is beyond the scope of science to explain or understand reality.
Is this right?
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 08:38 AM
#2
Frenzied Member
Uhm... how can one build a model to predict the future of a system if one can't understand the present reality?
Instrumentalist sound like crack smokers. 
Travis, Kung Foo Journeyman
As always, RTFM.
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YBMS, but Mozilla doesn't.
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 09:21 AM
#3
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
 Easy!
Uhm... how can one build a model to predict the future of a system if one can't understand the present reality?
Well, if I wanted to predict the motion of the planet Saturn over the next few months, all I would need is it's current position (and that of the rest of the solar system) and a good knowlege of einstien's space/time thoery.
That's fine. All I've made are predictions based on a set of rules and data. If I wanted to then proceed to draw conclusions about the space/time such as is it possible to travel through time, is the future pre-determined and what's inside a black whole, is that a legitimate use of the theory or an abuse?
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 10:50 AM
#4
transcendental analytic
I think you just need to apply Kepplers laws
What ciberthug is implying is that you require faith to not go insane. Instrumentalists has more respect in logics and should rule the world! 
Use  
writing software in C++ is like driving rivets into steel beam with a toothpick.
writing haskell makes your life easier:
reverse (p (6*9)) where p x|x==0=""|True=chr (48+z): p y where (y,z)=divMod x 13
To throw away OOP for low level languages is myopia, to keep OOP is hyperopia. To throw away OOP for a high level language is insight.
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 10:52 AM
#5
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
Keppler's Laws
Could you refresh my memory of Keppler's laws?
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Aug 2nd, 2001, 11:02 AM
#6
transcendental analytic
I have bad memory myself but i try to formulate it like this:
on equal amount of time the area of the sector passed squared is equal to the radius^3 then go on with differental dx/dt to find the displacement
Use
writing software in C++ is like driving rivets into steel beam with a toothpick.
writing haskell makes your life easier:
reverse (p (6*9)) where p x|x==0=""|True=chr (48+z): p y where (y,z)=divMod x 13
To throw away OOP for low level languages is myopia, to keep OOP is hyperopia. To throw away OOP for a high level language is insight.
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