Richard Feynman at Cal Tech, “accidentally” describing institutional attendance-based religion, middle-man pharmaceuticals, lecture-based factory education, professional permanent elitist government… so much of which has strayed far from its Intention.
This excerpt is from Richard Feynman’s 1974 Cal Tech commencement address, referred to as the “Cargo Cult Science” speech. Here’s a summary:
I believe the educational and psychological studies I mentioned are examples of what I like to call cargo cult science. In the South Seas, during the war, the locals saw airplanes land with valuable goods. Afterward, they wanted to recreate this, so they built imitations: runways, fires along their sides, a wooden hut for a “controller” with wooden headphones and bamboo antennae. The setup looked perfect, but no planes landed. They were missing something essential.
Similarly, cargo cult science mimics the appearance of genuine scientific investigation—its forms and procedures—but lacks the critical elements needed to produce real results.
Now, it’s my responsibility to explain what’s missing. However, this would be as complex as explaining to the islanders how to build a functioning economic system. It’s not just a matter of tweaking their wooden headphones. Still, there’s one major feature that’s often absent in cargo cult science: an underlying principle of scientific integrity. This principle is a kind of deep honesty—a willingness to critically examine your own work and report everything, including flaws or alternative explanations, so others can assess the validity of your conclusions. This integrity, though rarely emphasized, is the cornerstone of true scientific thinking.
Thanks, Sebastian…
