...And We'll Do it Again
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Subtítulos (200 segments)
DownloadCourtskazart is lying to you in every
video, even in this one. Because our
videos distill very complex subjects
into flashy 10-minute pieces. And
unfortunately, reality is, well,
complicated.
The question of how we deal with that is
central to what we do on this channel
and something we think about a lot.
[Music]
What we mean by lying is the concept of
lies to children. The idea that on the
path to explaining something
complicated, you start off with a little
lie, a useful oversimplification that
makes it easier to grasp a concept. For
example, as a kid, you learn that the
Earth is a sphere orbiting the sun with
planet buddies. But it's not actually a
sphere and the buddies are super
different in size and not close to each
other at all. By beginning at a place of
oversimplification, you're building a
framework, a foundation that you can
then build upon and add nuance and
complexity later on. Step by step,
you're getting towards the real gist of
the complicated subject. Science
communication has to use lies to
children to some degree or it turns into
science education. and getting a proper
education in all of the scientific
fields would take years of intense study
to become fluent in them. As a species,
we have a major interest in summarizing
science and its advancements and
educating as many people about it as
possible because we all benefit if more
people have a fact-based scientific
worldview.
We will discuss what science is and how
it works in different videos in more
detail. But for now, let's just say it's
a process to advance, organize, predict,
and test our knowledge about the
universe.
If you understand the current state of
scientific knowledge, then you can make
better decisions based on facts and
testable ideas rather than outdated
belief systems or our intuition that
evolved to protect our ancestors from
lions, but is no longer suited for the
complexity of our modern world. Our
brains are comically illprepared to
navigate the fastmoving world we happen
to live in today. A world ironically
created by science. A few hundred years
ago, it was possible to be knowledgeable
at an expert level in pretty much every
field of study. In the information age,
this is a futile endeavor since
knowledge and data are increasing
exponentially. So to even have a chance
of grasping the world we live in, we
need summaries that give us, if not a
true understanding of all the details, a
solid overview. Explaining science to
many people is not about enlightening
the ignorant, but necessary for the
progress of our species at large. To
make this possible, we need to find
metaphors and stories that capture the
true nature of things as much as
possible while using a language that our
brains can deal with. A great example
here is physics. Quarks are often
depicted as blue, red, and green with
different spins. But just saying spin
and using colors forces our brain to
imagine colorful spinning balls, which
is great to visualize the different
types and the relationships between
quarks, but also creates a very wrong
image of reality in our heads. Molecules
are nothing like the neat diagrams that
we're taught in school, but buzzing and
vibrating entities held together by
something we call charge that describes
how certain things want to be close or
escape each other for some unknown
reason. We're describing phenomena that
we are pretty sure exist in some form or
another because the maths works out and
we can do real world experiments and
predict their results before we do them.
In reality, these are models, tricks to
summarize what we know, make up a
coherent story, and prepare the ground
for more in-depth explanations.
Don't confuse the description of a thing
for the thing itself.
Simplifications like these are not just
meant to dumb things down. They're
actually useful for experts themselves.
For example, chemists who use wrong
electron shell models to work out
chemical bonds or scientists using
simplified models as the basis for
discussion with colleagues across
different scientific fields. But the
simplification of science can also be
problematic for a bunch of reasons.
Finding the true nature of reality is
super hard because our brains did not
evolve for this job and the universe
doesn't care if we understand it.
Science is a process to work towards
gaining knowledge and not an absolute
truth generator.
The answers it provides are
multi-layered and nuance and that
complexity can get lost when it's
simplified, especially when it's done so
for headlines. An interesting cancer
study turns into a potential cure. A
healthy food becomes the basis for a new
diet.
Such simplifications give a misleading
definitess to science which goes against
its process-like nature. When cures
don't materialize and diets don't turn
out to be magical, we lose confidence in
science and start to think of all
science communication as misleading.
Then there's the opposite effect. If a
simplification is too engaging, if the
story it tells is too good, it can
distort the true complexity of a subject
and give you a false sense of security
and an illusion of deep knowledge. A gut
feeling that you understand the science
better than you actually do, which can
lead people to ignore actual experts
over their dangerous superficial
knowledge and gut feeling. And this can
have negative consequences for all of us
because in the worst case overconfidence
in your own understanding of science can
lead to bad decisions made with
confidence. Just think of the surge of
people that confidently disavow vaccines
or climate change without truly
understanding the subject matter. So
considering all of this and the fact
that we at Kotkazart reach millions of
people with our videos, how do we handle
this? Well, it has been a journey,
especially the research. When we
started, we just read articles, then
moved on to books, peer-reviewed papers,
then to conversations with experts. We
began to collect our sources. With every
step, we realized that we were still not
doing enough. Nowadays, we try to read
as many primary sources as possible,
talk to multiple experts, and document
our simplifications, and give further
reading in our sources dock. But this
doesn't make our process flawless. What
do you do if experts disagree with each
other? What do you do if you find an
amazing fact that perfectly fits a
narrative but just can't find its
primary source? How do you deal with the
reality that many scientific results
have huge error bars or may attached to
them? How do you handle complex systems
that defy easy answers? In the end, we
make 10-minute videos, so we need to
make decisions about what details and
explanations can fit, which aspects need
to be simplified, and which parts to
cut. There is no single best answer for
how to do this, and so we weigh the
different options every single time. It
can be painful for experts to see their
field simplified. Some are happy with
us, while others don't like it. This is
fair, but also impossible to avoid.
We're still trying to improve and want
to be transparent about what we're
trying to do. For example, we're taking
part in the Tresa project about science
communication to learn more. All of this
brings us to the purpose of our videos.
The most important thing we want to do
with this channel is to inspire you and
spark your curiosity for science and the
amazing universe we live in. Learning
Key Vocabulary (50)
toward
"Go to school."
belonging
"Cup of tea."
also
"You and me."
inside
"In the house."
specific
"That book."
A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an object, animal, or situation that has already been mentioned or is clear from context. It is also frequently used as a dummy subject to talk about time, weather, or distance.
Used to show who is intended to have or use something, or to explain the purpose or reason for an action. It is also frequently used to indicate a specific duration of time.
A function word used to express negation or denial. It is primarily used to make a sentence or phrase negative, often following an auxiliary verb or the verb 'to be'.
A preposition used to indicate that something is in a position above and supported by a surface. It is also used to indicate a specific day or date, or to show that a device is functioning.
A preposition used to indicate that people or things are together, in the same place, or performing an action together. It can also describe the instrument used to perform an action or a characteristic that someone or something has.
A conjunction used to compare two things that are equal in some way. It is most commonly used in the pattern 'as + adjective/adverb + as' to show similarity.
Used to refer to the person or people that the speaker is addressing. It is the second-person pronoun used for both singular and plural subjects and objects.
A preposition used to indicate a specific point, location, or position in space. It is also used to specify a particular point in time or a certain state or activity.
Used to identify a specific person, thing, or idea that is physically close to the speaker or has just been mentioned. It can also refer to the present time or a situation that is currently happening.
A coordinating conjunction used to connect two statements that contrast with each other. It is used to introduce an added statement that is different from what has already been mentioned.
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Description
Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-behindthelies This video is part of the TRESCA project to get more visit https://trescaproject.eu/ This video was produced...
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