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A case in point: the popular Facebook page “I f*cking love science” posts quick-take variations on the “science of x” theme, mostly images and short descriptions of unfamiliar creatures like the pink fairy armadillo, or illustrated birthday wishes to famous scientists like Stephen Hawking. But as the science fiction writer John Skylar rightly insisted in a fiery takedown of the practice last year, most people don’t f*cking love science, they f*cking love photography—pretty images of fairy armadillos and renowned physicists. The pleasure derived from these pictures obviates the public’s need to understand how science actually gets done—slowly and methodically, with little acknowledgement and modest pay in unseen laboratories and research facilities.  The rhetoric of science has consequences. Things that have no particular relation to scientific practice must increasingly frame their work in scientific terms to earn any attention or support. The sociology of Internet use suddenly tr...

There are many strange coincidences in our world. The mass of the electron is 2000 times smaller than the mass of the proton. Why? The only known reason is that if it would change few times, life as we know it would be impossible. The masses of the proton and neutron almost coincide. Why? If one of their masses would change just a little, life as we know it would be impossible. The energy of empty space in our part of the universe is not zero, but a tiny number, more than a hundred orders of magnitude below the naive theoretical expectations. Why? The only known explanation is that we would be unable to live in the world with a much larger energy of vacuum. The relation between our properties and the properties of the world is called the anthropic principle. But if the universe were given to us in one copy, this relation would not help. We would need to speculate about the divine cause making the universe custom built for humans. Meanwhile, in the multiverse consisting of many differe...

A grande marcha de destruição mental vai continuar. Tudo será negado. Tudo tornar-se-á um credo. É razoável negar as pedras da rua; afirmá-las será um dogma religioso. É uma tese racional dizer que vivemos todos num sonho; será uma sanidade mística dizer que estamos acordados. Fogos serão acesos para testemunhar que dois mais dois são quatro. Espadas serão desembainhadas para provar que as folhas são verdes no Verão. Vamos ser obrigado a defender, não apenas as incríveis virtudes e sanidades da vida humana, mas algo ainda mais incrível, este universo enorme e impossível que temos diante de nós. Vamos lutar por prodígios visíveis como se fossem invisíveis. Vamos olhar para a relva impossível e para os céus com uma estranha coragem. Vamos ser aqueles que viram, e no entanto, acreditaram. The great march of mental destruction will go on. Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed. It is a reasonable position to deny the stones in the street; it will be a religious dogma t...