Metamagical Themas

“Cargo Cult Science” is the name of a speech that Feynman gave in 1974 (at Caltech's commencement address). I've always loved it because it embeds so plainly what I think is the essence of science, as opposed to pseudosciences.

I've found myself wanting to transmit those ideas in multiple occasions when talking to other people that are more gullible, or have a harder time to see the differences between the two. Often it was while talking to people that didn't know much English, so even if I was tempted to send them a link to the speech itself, the language barrier would have been too much. And, alas, I couldn't find a translation!

I decided to write one, send it to those friends, and also put it online (whatever copyright/wrong may say about it). But I never got to finish it, so it was still an open project.

Today I decided to give it a go again, after a few years. But I checked first and, sure enough, now there are easy to find translations! My search took me to “cienciadirecta” , and there is also a link to the translated speech in it: “Ciencia del culto a la carga”. Thank you anonymous translator! I'll use it now to tip off my friends.

Funny thing, this translation appears in some “Revista de Economía Institucional”. What an unlikely place to find it. Also, they have a Creative Commons Attribution License for the translation. How nice of them!

By the way, what is that special idea behind actual science? Honesty. Of a quite high degree. But that summary doesn't nearly capture a tiny part of the very enjoyable speech. If you haven't read it already, you probably want to do it now, and you'll probably want to share it too with your friends in those discussions you'll likely have.