[Stoves] Paradigm shifts

[Paul Anderson]

Crispin, Cecil, and all,

Cecil wrote:
> IMO this fight is likely to persist for a century. That was the 
> conclusion of Kuhn in his historical assessment of the way science 
> progresses. The big paradigm does not shift until the authorities 
> literally die off and the younger generation pulls off a revolutionary 
> paradigm shift (see Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific 
> Revolutions. It takes time to kill off mistaken orthodoxies once they 
> take root.

Is the differnce between the ICS stoves (solid biomass burning as solid 
biomass) and the gasifier stoves (solid biomass converting to gases 
before being burned) a paradigm shift?  If so, I hope the ICS folks will 
change and not just die off.  But being part of the "younger generation" 
does not give this old man (me) any comfort or extra years.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 11/23/2017 2:16 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
>
> Dear Friends
>
> I am posting a comment from Cecil (with permission) from a discussion 
> about changing the dominant testing paradigm.
>
> Thanks Cecil
>
> Crispin
>
> +++++++++
>
> …I was trying to capture and constructively redirect the increasingly 
> bitter and irrational conflict between the different stove testing 
> "parties", clans, or maybe just factions on the stove science 
> equivalent of a Michelson-Morley experiment that would practically 
> resolve the matter of which metrics and design & development 
> procedures result in the "best" stove for a well characterized target 
> community of stove users.  Therefore the "trumped up" shoot out at the 
> OK CORRAL between the certifiers and the contextualers which are two 
> schools of stove science.
>
> +
>
> IMO this fight is likely to persist for a century. That was the 
> conclusion of Kuhn in his historical assessment of the way science 
> progresses. The big paradigm does not shift until the authorities 
> literally die off and the younger generation pulls off a revolutionary 
> paradigm shift (see Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific 
> Revolutions. It takes time to kill off mistaken orthodoxies once they 
> take root.
>
> I have seen how "progressive" orthodoxies can quickly form in the USA 
> and dominate the discourse for a generation or more. Nikhil and I are 
> old enough to have surfed our way through more than a couple of 
> enthusiastic waves of mistaken sciences. My judgement is that the 
> direction of most sciences is controlled by artisan-scientists who 
> invent new instruments that enable the observation and precise 
> measurement of nature, including human nature, at increasingly more 
> micro and macro scales of observation and interaction. This was 
> something I learned from the horse's mouth in lectures at LSE  by Karl 
> Popper. Forgot what book talks about the role of lens makers in the 
> development of astronomy and micro biology; maybe Conjectures and 
> Refutations.
>
> I was trying to divert stovers from the politics of astronomy AKA 
> theories of stove testing stage & science and focus the different 
> schools of stove making on what I see as the main mission of stove 
> science and testing. My personal aim is to get stovers to focus on the 
> different steps in the process by which more appropriate domestic 
> stoves are in developed, tested, fabricated, & disseminated to 
> particular communities of use. We are so stuck in testing stage that 
> we are not experimenting systematically with how to optimize each step 
> in the stove development process and then ultimately how to get the 
> best possible combination of steps and critical factors.
>
> To me we are looking for a mythical best or most perfect stove for a 
> given community. That is not how reality works. You know about the 
> best being the enemy of the good (enough). If we remember we are a 
> diverse team of stove makers who are going through an exciting 
> learning process together, and stop worrying about identifying generic 
> stoves intended for industrialized mass production in China I am sure 
> we will make much with more progress toward understanding the 
> differences between contextually appropriate vs inappropriate domestic 
> stoves.
>
> Perhaps if you can accept  my objectives - which is not the 
> establishment of well contextualized national and regional teams 
> competent to design & develop a series of culturally and 
> environmentally appropriate domestic stoves - then maybe you will 
> understand my strategy to refocus the discussion away from the self 
> aggrandizing politics of special interest groups of INSIDERS and 
> OUTSIDERS.
>
> Otherwise we allow ourselves to be "the playthings of the ignorant".
>
> That's what comes to mind Xavier and what did Einstein say about 
> solutions to problems in science and life? Something about the 
> solutions residing outside the paradigm or world view i have which the 
> problem(s) are characterized.
>
> A LUTA CONTINUA!
>
> Cecil the Cook
>

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