

Lord Kelvin and Being Usefully Wrong - dood
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/01/01/lord_kelvin_and.html

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nebula
IMO, Kelvin is a wrong example for being usefully wrong.

[http://www.usd.edu/esci/age/content/failed_scientific_clocks...](http://www.usd.edu/esci/age/content/failed_scientific_clocks/kelvin_cooling.html)
He argued against evolution based on wrong assumptions (which at his time were
speculative). He was arrogant and didn't submit to reason; He didn't publicly
retract his stand even after he was proven wrong. All this points to his
arrogance and fanaticism.

And Kedrosky's blog post is a little lame too: "Kelvin did not believe that
heavier-than-air flying machines were possible and he regarded X-rays as a
hoax" At the turn of the twentieth century he "claimed that physics was nearly
complete and all problems would soon be settled." After mentioning these he
goes on to claim that Kelvin's "genius as a physicist was manifested by the
fact" that he predicted the "unexpected behavior of ether in Michelson-Morley
experiment", and black-body radiation as two open problems in physics at that
time.

the unexpected results of Michelson-Morley experiment brought classical
physics to its knees. Anyone with a decent understanding of physics at that
time would have considered that solving this problem is going to directly open
doors to great findings.

Kelvin, sure was a genius in physics, but these are definitely not signs of
it. And he didn't come across as an open minded person.

------
Shamiq
Current top comment on the blog is a good one:

"Keep your mistakes cheap."

