Science Information

An engineer gets up and says, ‘2+2=4.’ This is information.

A student says, ‘2+2=6.’ They earnestly believe that. This is misinformation.

Another student says, ‘I don’t know what 2+2 is because bears ate my homework.’ This is disinformation. There never were any bears or homework.

A mathematician says, ‘2+2=6 for certain vector systems.’ They publish. Other mathematicians postulate their vector system is wrong. They fight. This is mathematics.

My students say, ‘2.’ Partial credit.

The Law Dept. trains their students to say, ‘2 is a number.’ They write a fifty page brief and bill for 20 hours.

In my lab, I put a 2 Ω resistor in series with a 2 Ω resistor, attempt to measure total resistance, the resistors and multimeter catch fire, and we have a meeting with building maintenance. Matlab runs out of memory and crashes.

The biologists have two puppies. A student brings in two more. They play with all eight puppies, because the puppies are super-cute and deserve to be counted twice. That one has a floppy ear! They publish. Conclusion: puppies!

The physicists argue whether the information can be read faster than the speed of light or if uncertain information is really information at all.

The chemists add 2 mols of something to 2 mols of something else, and the solution also catches fire. But they did it intentionally.

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