Ted Talk Outline

Introduction:

Scientific thought and discovery has a distinct process that hasn’t changed much throughout human history. All thought and discovery stems from some sort of problem in society. Problems provide the motivation to think about and find a solution. Scientists use the modern “scientific process,” really just a refined and lengthy method of “guess and check,” to confirm or reject hypotheses, educated guesses to possible solutions to a problem. Despite this lengthy process, it can potentially all go to waste at the final step: implementation. No matter how scientifically sound a discovery is, its implementation into society is ultimately dependant on people’s trust.

 

Weave into each piece: Charles Darwin and Evolution:

 

  • Revolutionary theory that marked the transition from the nonsensical theory of creationism to a logical and supportable theory of natural selection.
  • Not received well by much of the public and took a long time to be fully accepted and implemented

 

Long Standing Mistrust in Science:

  • Elitism
    • Belief that scientists are a group of intellectual elites that look down upon the lower classes
    • Technical language characteristic of scientists is generally over people’s heads
    • People don’t like being told what to do
    • They naturally revolt when they feel that an authority figure is becoming too powerful
    • Darwin’s savage attacks on non believers of his theory
  • Going hand in hand with elitism, people feel detached from science and its applicability to real life issues
    • Most research has no immediate benefits, and it seems that billions of dollars may be funneled into research that bears no fruits for decades, or may never bear fruit at all
    • People are often irrational and can’t see the long run benefits of scientific thought
    • The result is they end up supporting short term satisfactions rather than solutions to long term problems
  • Status Quo
    • People are unwilling to deviate from the existing status quo, because that is what they are comfortable with
    • Conservative attitudes of “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke”
    • Religion and Evolution: demonstrates that people aren’t comfortable with a change in fundamental beliefs such as those surrounding religion

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