Difference between revisions of "Expert Error"

Revision as of 07:56, December 24, 2009

Expert Error consists of serious errors by recognized experts about scientific or engineering theories or possibilities. We start with examples:

Lord Kelvin claiming heavier than air flight, radio, and radioactivity were impossible.^[1]
Albert Einstein thought nuclear power would never be commercially viable.
Leading scientists recommending around 1900 that the United States Patent Office should be abolished because everything useful had been invented.
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in the 1960s, believed there would never be a market for more than a handful of computers in the entire world.
Irving Fisher, professor of economics at Yale, believed in 1929 that stock prices would never decrease.

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 '''Expert Error''' consists of serious errors by recognized experts about scientific or engineering theories or possibilities.  We start with examples:
-*Lord Kelvin claiming heavier than air flight was impossible and that radioactivity was impossible.
+*Lord Kelvin claiming heavier than air flight, radio, and radioactivity were impossible.<ref>http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/stoopid.lis</ref>
+*Albert Einstein thought nuclear power would never be commercially viable.
 *Leading scientists recommending around 1900 that the United States Patent Office should be abolished because everything useful had been invented.
+*Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in the 1960s, believed there would never be a market for more than a handful of computers in the entire world.
+*Irving Fisher, professor of economics at Yale, believed in 1929 that stock prices would never decrease.
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