“There is no one inventor of the scientific method. Like science itself, it continued to be refined thanks to the likes of Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and Newton. The process involves 1. observation, including rigorous skepticism (to counter our cognitive biases); 2. formulating a hypothesis; 3. making a prediction that can be determined to be true or false; 4. experiments and testing to determine the validity of the hypothesis. The process continually repeats, allowing better and better hypotheses to be tested and confirmed. Perhaps the most compelling thing about science and the scientific method is that it is almost never “good enough.” It is designed to continually bring in more evidence to prove existing understanding wrong and to correct it further.

Error correction is the basis of all intelligence.”

– Jeff Booth

This week Big Tech companies such as Twitter and YouTube continued silencing scientists such as Dr. Robert Malone and Dr Peter McCullough for their opposing opinions to current Covid treatments and regulations. Just yesterday Twitter and YouTube deleted Joe Rogan’s interview with Dr. Malone giving no reason other than “it is misinformation.”

I am no scientist or doctor, as many like to point out, so I don’t know if Malone or McCullough are actually wrong. I also don’t know if the scientists and doctors with Big Pharma companies are wrong. That’s the point. And that’s the reason for the scientific method.

I cannot say it any better than Booth writes in this book. “Error correction is the basis of all intelligence.” Therefore if we silence those who point out errors, we actually lose intelligence itself. We are no longer an intelligent species. We as humans become something different.

I fear that free thought is on life support, the scientific method has been discarded and Americans have become too dumbed down by social media scrolling to even care. However, as I wrote earlier this week, I do finally see signs of Americans waking up. Much of it is fueled by Joe Rogan who we saw this week now has double the audience of traditional Big Media outlets.

Actually, that’s not what this book is about at all. It’s just that Booth’s description of the scientific method punched me right in the face at the exact moment this was all on my mind. This book is actually about how scientific advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence, energy, self-driving cars, and manufacturing will create high unemployment, overabundance, and deflation. He argues that we will have much more at lower costs and we must embrace that so those unemployed can also reap the benefits of technological advancement without transfers of wealth.

Booth writes “We are trapped in a system where we don’t know what we would do with ourselves if we didn’t have jobs. Allowing abundance without the jobs might actually open an entirely new enlightenment era where we have time to enjoy the benefits that technology brings.”

I argue all this technological advancement can only happen if we allow the scientific method to thrive, meaning we must stop censoring scientific dissent.

I really enjoyed this entire book and recommend it to anyone interested in economics or emerging technologies.