How Do We Know

Best thing about explaining science to people?

Showing people how we acquire reliable knowledge. Science can look like a list of facts but the interesting question is: “How do you know?” How do we know the early universe was hot and dense? How do we measure the distance to a galaxy? So I keep returning to the question: “How do we know?”

An excerpt from recent broadsheet Q&Aing English sleb physicist and tv star-gazer, Brian Cox.

For science read bid management.

This approach is a staple of deal diligence.

How do we know a specific prospect personality is on our side?

How do we know the pain is real?

How do we know they seek urgent remedy?

How do we know money will be paid?

How do we know they see us as uniquely resolving things for them?

We mustn't guess. Nor hope. We need to know not just if but why there's heat and density. Else without such reliable knowledge there'll be a galaxy of distance between what they do and our ambition.

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As bonus footnote, he later remarked;

"Science quantifies uncertainty. In particle physics, much of a PhD is spent calculating how well you know something and establishing the error bars."

Valid Qualification and Forecasting can see been in one sense can be seen as establishing such 'error bars' of our own knowledge. And deciding what, if anything, can be to reduce them.