Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

(Redirected from Cargo cult science)

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
First edition
AuthorRalph Leighton and Richard Feynman
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectPhysics
GenreAutobiography, Biography, Non-fiction
PublisherW.W. Norton (US)
Publication date
1985 (US)
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback) also Audio book
Pages350 p. (US hardcover edition) & 322 p. (US paperback edition)
ISBN0-393-01921-7 (US hardcover edition)
OCLC10925248
530/.092/4 B 19
LC ClassQC16.F49 A37 1985
Followed byWhat Do You Care What Other People Think? 

Summary edit

The book has many stories which are lighthearted in tone, such as his fascination with safe-cracking, studying various languages, participating with groups of people who share different interests (such as biology or philosophy), and ventures into art and samba music.

Other stories cover more serious material, including his work on the Manhattan Project (during which his first wife Arline Greenbaum died of tuberculosis) and his critique of the science education system in Brazil. The section "Monster Minds" describes his slightly nervous presentation of his graduate work on the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory in front of Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, Henry Norris Russell, John von Neumann, and other major scientists of the time.

The anecdotes were edited from taped conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton. Its surprise success led to a sequel, What Do You Care What Other People Think?, also taken from Leighton's taped conversations. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! became a national bestseller.[1]

The book's title is taken from a comment made by a woman at Princeton University after Feynman asked for both cream and lemon in his tea, not being familiar with the proper etiquette.[2]

Cargo cult science edit

The final chapter, "Cargo Cult Science," was adapted from Feynman's 1974 commencement address at the California Institute of Technology, in which he cautioned graduates not to minimize the weaknesses of their research in the pursuit of a preferred conclusion. He drew an analogy to the cargo cult phenomenon in the South Pacific Ocean in which, as he understood it, islanders built a mock airstrip to cause airplanes loaded with imported goods to land.[a] Similarly, he argued, adopting the appearances of scientific investigation without a self-critical attitude will fail to produce reliable results.[2]

Feynman introduced his point by reference to the phenomenon of the "cargo cult" in the South Pacific Ocean, which he described as an attempt to acquire wealth (cargo) by crudely simulating the airstrips that existed during World War II.[4][5]

 
A ceremonial flag raising performed by members of the John Frum cargo cult on Tanna island

In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to imitate things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas—he's the controller—and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.[6][7]

Feynman cautioned that to avoid becoming cargo cult scientists, researchers must avoid fooling themselves, be willing to question and doubt their own theories and their own results, and investigate possible flaws in a theory or an experiment. He recommended that researchers adopt an unusually high level of honesty which is rarely encountered in everyday life, and gave examples from advertising, politics, and psychology to illustrate the everyday dishonesty which should be unacceptable in science. Feynman cautioned,[6]: 11 

We've learned from experience that the truth will out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in cargo cult science.

An example of cargo cult science is an experiment that uses another researcher's results in lieu of an experimental control. Since the other researcher's conditions might differ from those of the present experiment in unknown ways, differences in the outcome might have no relation to the independent variable under consideration. Other examples, given by Feynman, are from educational research, psychology (particularly parapsychology), and physics. He also mentions other kinds of dishonesty, for example, falsely promoting one's research to secure funding. Feynman believed a scientist of integrity must attempt to give out as much information as possible about their experiments so others could accurately appraise their contribution.[6]: 11 

The oil drop experiment: The history of published results for this experiment is an example given in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, in which each new publication slowly and quietly drifted more and more away from the initial (erroneous) values given by Robert Millikan toward the correct value, rather than all having a random distribution from the start around what is now believed to be the correct result. This slow drift in the chronological history of results is unnatural and suggests that nobody wanted to contradict the previous one, instead submitting only concordant results for publication.[6]

In his commencement address, Richard Feynman stated his belief that the antidote to both cargo cult science and pseudoscience is scientific integrity, which he describes as, "a kind of leaning over backwards" to make sure scientists do not fool themselves or others. According to Feynman an ethical scientist must make the extra effort to ensure that their methods and results are transparent, allowing other people to accurately appraise and understand the scientist's research. Feynman uses the case of a Wesson cooking oil advertisement as an example of an unethical and deceptive use of science that delivers nothing of value. The advertisement made the claim that the oil would not soak through food. In reality, no oil will soak through food if it is cold enough, and all oil will soak through food if hot enough. Since these facts would not advance Wesson's agenda, these facts were not made readily available for consumers.[6]: 11 

This "cargo cult" metaphor has been influential in the criticism of science and pseudoscience[8] and adopted in other fields, such as cargo cult programming in software development.[3][b]

Criticism edit

Murray Gell-Mann was upset by Feynman's account in the book of the weak interaction work, and threatened to sue, resulting in a correction being inserted in later editions.[9]

Feynman was criticized for a chapter titled "You Just Ask Them?" where he recounts picking up a woman by deliberately insulting her with a misogynistic term after the woman plays him for free food.[10][11][12] Feynman states at the end of the chapter that this behavior was not typical.

Publication data edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The reality of cargo cults was more varied and nuanced than Feynman's description, particularly his literal interpretation of "cargo."[3]
  2. ^ While the metaphor is closely associated with Feynman, he was not the first to use it. For an earlier example see: Dowse, Robert E. (July 1966). "A Functionalist's Logic". World Politics. 18 (4): 607–622.

Citations edit

  1. ^ "Overview of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!". wwnorton.com. W. W. Norton & Company. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15.
  2. ^ a b Feynman, Richard (1997). Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-393-31604-9.
  3. ^ a b Lindstrom, Lamont (2018). "Cargo cults". The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  4. ^ The John Frum movement in Vanuatu notably simulated aviation, although simulation of maritime shipping was more common.
  5. ^ Jarvie, I. C. (September 1963). "Theories of Cargo Cults: A Critical Analysis". Oceania. 34 (1): 1–31.
  6. ^ a b c d e Feynman, Richard P. (June 1974). "Cargo Cult Science" (PDF). California Institute of Technology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  7. ^ Feynman, Richard P. (2010). Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-393-33985-7.
  8. ^ Witkowski, Tomasz (2016). Psychology Led Astray: Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy. Universal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62734-609-2.
  9. ^ Johnson, George (July 2001). "The Jaguar and the Fox". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  10. ^ Gleick 1992, pp. 287–291, 341–345.
  11. ^ Urry, Meg (August 9, 2014). "Male scientists, don't harass young female colleagues". CNN.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
  12. ^ Koren, Marina (October 24, 2018). "Lawrence Krauss and the Legacy of Harassment in Science". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 30, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.

External links edit