Language manipulation

A few weeks ago we learned the news that Stanford University had published a brochure specifying a list of words that should not be used because they are harmful. The news caused a huge uproar, as one of the forbidden words is American, which should be replaced by US citizen. Also on the list, of course, is abortion, as well as many other commonly used terms. A word whose exclusion caused a lot of rejection was victim, which according to the authors of this monstrosity should be replaced by a person who has experienced or a person who has been impacted. Among those who reacted to this absurdity, some media highlighted Elon Musk’s contribution, who published the following tweet:

This has gone too far, to say the least! @Stanford, what’s your explanation for this madness?

where, by the way, one of the forbidden words appears: madness.

Science and Scientism

Allegory of science
Attributed to Sebastiano Conca

The Dictionary of Oxford Languages defines science as follows:

The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained.

This definition is complete, because it covers the three branches in which scientific knowledge is normally classified: theory (reasoning), observation and experimentation. We could add applied science (technology), which is often classified separately.

On the other hand, scientism is defined thus:

The belief that scientific methods can be applied to all problems, with the consequent application of inappropriate scientific methods in unsuitable circumstances.

Another conversation with ChatGPT

As I said in the previous post, last January I did two sessions with ChatGPT from OpenAI. In the second, my questions were directed to the following scientific topics:

• The special theory of relativity, the limit of the speed of light in a vacuum, and the possibility of traveling in time.

Throughout the session I was asking the following questions:

1. Can a particle travel at a speed greater than light?

Answer: According to the theory of relativity, as first described by Albert Einstein, nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light...

A conversation with ChatGPT

Last January I decided to test the latest hit in Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT from OpenAI. To do this, I carried out two independent sessions (I don’t know if the program connected them to each other). My questions had to do with the following scientific topics:

• The first session dealt with a series of questions about the general theory of relativity, cosmological theories, and the standard cosmological model.
• The second session dealt with the special theory of relativity, the limit of the speed of light in a vacuum, and the possibility of time travel.

After the first session, my conclusions are the following: