RE: linear hypothesis etc.

[Free Spirit <FRANK@rover.bsd.uchicago.edu>]

>From: "Lamothe, Emelie" <lamothee@crl5.crl.aecl.ca>
>Subject: linear hypothesis etc.
>Contrary to what some of my friends and colleagues think, the public is not 
>dumb.  
	However a significant percentage of them are terminally stupid.
	(By my definition dumb/uneducated can be cured, stupid can't.)

	A hospital security officer and I recently spent a futile half-hour
	trying to jump start the car of an MD who was sure the battery wad dead.
	Finally I checked inside the cockpit, put the transmission back into
	park from reverse, and it started right up. When I pointed to the
	shift lever, instead of slapping their head and saying "how could I
	be so dumb" they just said "Oh it has to be in park to start?"

>The public includes engineers, scientists, doctors, plumbers, ... They are
>trained in their field (law, medicine, child-care, etc) but not in ours.  ...

	Unfortunately an ever-increasing section of our society is only
	"trained" to the level of "do you want fries with that burger"

>When it comes to making an informed decision, whether it is buying a car or 
>voting on an energy-related issues, WE AND THE PUBLIC  base our decision on 
>what information is available and on fuzzy-type inputs.

	If we need to make an informed choice, we (scientists, doctors, or
	others who have an extended education,) try to extend our information
	store, (using peer recommendations,,) and then make a decision.

	The burger-flipers (or those who serve the machines that flip the
	burgers,) tend to listen more to Heraldo, and make their decisions
	on what Aunt Tillie or uncal Herman did. They tend to believe the
	stories of things that go bump in the night.

	Until we understand the decision making process of the other half,
	we won't get anywhere.

Frank R. Borger - Physicist     ___      "One third of the rats were improved
Michael Reese - U of Chicago   |___      on the experimental medication, one
Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   third remained the same, and the 
net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu    | \|_)  other one third could not be repor-
ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-2517       |_)  ted on, because that rat got away."
                                         - Edwin Bidwell Wilson