Saturday, May 30, 2015
Joke with metapoint
I just noticed something. I was looking at this entry where I marveled at, and animated, a discovery by entomologists. It turns out that katydids, and presumably other related insects, have ears on their front legs. The ears are remarkably parallel in function and moving parts to vertebrate ears mounted in the head. Obvious example of the Grand Blueprint, design by purpose rather than by exact specification of pieces.
Remembered one of my father's science parables.
A scientist decided to train some grasshoppers to obey commands. After thousands of repetitions and reinforcements, the grasshoppers would jump every time he said JUMP! Then he started removing their legs one by one. After each removal of one leg he tried the command again. Performance got worse and worse, and finally when the grasshoppers had no legs at all, they didn't jump at all. He concluded that grasshoppers hear with their legs.
Moral of the story was obvious, or so my father thought! Don't jump to a conclusion based on one set of variables until you've eliminated all other possible explanations.
Now the joke has a metapoint. Don't make jokes about jumping to conclusions until you've eliminated the possibility that the joke itself jumps to a wrong conclusion.
Or: Don't toss out a conclusion because it sounds silly at the time, or because it sounds like something that lowly non-scientists have assumed, or because it "feeds the trolls." The last is most important for modern professional "scientists", whose sole purpose in life is to kill heretics.
Labels: Grand Blueprint
¶ 2:24 AM
