Recognizing the Absurd: A New Series of Blog Posts

 

Reductio Ad Absurdum is a basic tool of logic, first brought to our attention by the ancient Greeks.  It refutes a proposition by showing that it leads to absurd consequences.  To use it effectively, one must be able to assemble relevant facts that can be agreed to by the parties.  And one must be able to recognize absurdity.

 

In this day of Internet information systems, abundant facts are readily available.  But, incredibly, we seem to be losing our ability to recognize the absurd.  I will suggest some examples in which the facts seem to clearly indicate absurd consequences, but that fact is ignored, and research and development continue in the hopes of somehow finding a treasure at the end of this fundamentally unpromising road.

 

This brings up a secondary issue.  One can always keep a number of scientists employed researching an objective that is not worth achieving.  It’s like writing a novel that does not use the letter “e.”  This meets some basic characteristics that define a research project:  It is challenging, it can employ a number of people for a considerable time.  And it does seem reasonably likely to be achievable in the end.  But one wishes the effort had been put into another project, perhaps even more difficult, but with a goal well worth achieving.

 

There was a physicist named Lewi Tonks at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory who suggested to Admiral Rickover in the early 1950s that Rickover and his Naval Reactors program could build up a lot of respect in the broader scientific community by devoting at least one or two scientists to some project that was “completely useless, but challenging.”  I assumed he was only half serious, but this reflects part of the problem I’m addressing.  There is certainly need in the world for “pure research,” but it does not follow that every unanswered question is, ipso facto, worth pursuing.

 

And one more part of the problem-solving process must be in working order:  For a problem to be real, it must manifest in the real world: people or the environment must be harmed—or potentially harmed—in some significant way, so that the effectiveness of a solution can be defined and measured.

 

These points will become clearer in the forthcoming messages, as the examples are spelled out.