Jimmy Akin

No, his hard-drive is safe (as far as I know), but he’s hacked at the seduction of sciency by agenda. He recently gave a waaay-politically incorrect speech at Caltech in which he lambasted those he felt were passing off phony science as real science.

This is an important speech, in which Crichton says a number of important things about some very important subjects. Unfortunately, he says so many worthwhile things that the sheer length of the speech will prevent many people from absorbing and benefitting from what he has to say.

Therefore, over the next few days I will serialize excerpts from the speech. These will not be the entirety of the speech, and I strongly encourage you to read the original speech in its entirety, but these excerpts will give you a taste of what he had to say.

First up, Crichton comments on the Drake equation for predicting how many communicating extraterrestrial civilizations there may be in the Milky Way:

This serious-looking equation gave SETI an serious footing as a legitimate intellectual inquiry. The problem, of course, is that none of the terms can be known, and most cannot even be estimated. The only way to work the equation is to fill in with guesses. And guesses-just so we’re clear-are merely expressions of prejudice. Nor can there be "informed guesses." If you need to state how many planets with life choose to communicate, there is simply no way to make an informed guess. It’s simply prejudice.

As a result, the Drake equation can have any value from "billions and billions" to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. Speaking precisely, the Drake equation is literally meaningless, and has nothing to do with science. I take the hard view that science involves the creation of testable hypotheses. The Drake equation cannot be tested and therefore SETI is not science. SETI is unquestionably a religion. Faith is defined as the firm belief in something for which there is no proof. The belief that the Koran is the word of God is a matter of faith. The belief that God created the universe in seven days is a matter of faith. The belief that there are other life forms in the universe is a matter of faith.

The fact that the Drake equation was not greeted with screams of outrage-similar to the screams of outrage that greet each Creationist new claim, for example-meant that now there was a crack in the door, a loosening of the definition of what constituted legitimate scientific procedure. And soon enough, pernicious garbage began to squeeze through the cracks.

MORE TOMORROW.

READ THE WHOLE SPEECH.

Down yonder a reader writes:

This doesn’t deal with Crichton per se, but with a cool Idea
harvested from Science Fiction and vastly applicable to the real
world…

Jimmy, have you ever heard of the space elevator?

And on a side side note, Kim Stanley Robison’s "Red Mars" Trilogy is sci-fi WELL worth your time!

Thanks for the sci-fi recommend and the link to the Space.Com story!

For those who may not know, a space elevator is a massive tower that reaches earth orbit, in theory allowing us to ship men and material up into space much more safely, cheaply, and enviromentally-friendlyly than with the current rocketry program.

According to the link provided, some folks are talking about having a space elevator up in 10-15 years.

No word on if Otis will make it.

HERE’S WIKIPEDIA’S ARTICLE ON SPACE ELEVATORS.

Space elevators are a staple of sci-fi. Not only does Red Mars (which I haven’t read) have one, so do many other works. For example, Arthur C. Clark’s (venomously anti-Christian) novel 3001 (that’s three thousand and one) has the Earth of that year ringed by a series of massive equatorial space elevators. (The natives complained about how long it took to get all the satellites and space junk out of orbit to keep them from colliding with these ultra-tall space elevators).

One word of caution about space-elevators, tho. Precedent suggests that the construction process can be plagued with various problems, including sudden-onset massive language mutation.

GET THE SPACE.COM STORY.

Last weekend they had Jurassic Park (#1) on Sci-Fi, and I caught parts of it. Saw it in the theaters when it came out, but seeing it this time underscored for me that–no matter how exciting a dino-thrillride the movie is–the set-up act is filled with implausibilities.

(Like when the heroes see their first dinosaur. I don’t care if it’s a vegetarian brachiosaur–IT’S UNIMAGINABLY HUGE AND NOT AT ALL LETHARGIC AND I’M NOT GETTING OUT OF THE JEEP AND RUNNING UP TO THE THING. In fact, I’ll be demanding that the Jeep be turned around and raced away at top speed, following which I would have a serious discussion with Mr. Billionnaire Dino-Cloner about fatalities and lawsuits and mortal sin connected with driving Jeeps with passengers in the vicinity of free-range brachiosaurs.)

Still, it’s just a movie, and the book is probably better in such regards.

Jurassic Park is only one of Crichton’s novels that have looked at cutting-edge science issues. Another is his just-released book, State of Fear, which deals with global warming.

No, it’s not going to be a re-tread of The Day After Tomorrow (shudder).

Instead, Crichton suggests that global warming has little or nothing to do with humans but is being exploited by activists and scientists to push their agendas.

Scientists, predictably, have launched a pre-emptive strike on the book.

GET THE STORY.

GET THE BOOK.

A reader writes:

Geminid meteor shower tonight, I thought you might be interested in posting on your blog, it’s supposed to be good.

Yes, indeedy! Always love a good meteor shower.

The reader also recommends a CNN story (from SPACE.com) on the shower, which says in part:

(SPACE.com) — If you were disappointed with the meager showing put on by this year’s Leonid meteor shower, don’t fret. What could be the best meteor display of the year is scheduled to reach its peak on Monday night, December 13.

Skywatchers with dark skies away from city lights could see one or two meteors every minute during the Geminid meteor shower. The greatest activity is expected to be visible from North America, Europe and Africa.

The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On the night of this shower’s maximum, the meteors will appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini.

The Geminid meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the famous Perseids of August. Studies of past displays show that this shower has a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness.

GET THE STORY.