• zod000@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    17
    ·
    6 months ago

    Fuck, I really hate to agree with Elon on anything, but that is a ridiculous argument. LeCun must also really believe that trees only fall in the woods when someone is around to see it happen.

    • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Science is strictly a social activity. You can’t have a social activity without the social component.

      Again, fact-finding is not the same as science.

    • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      6 months ago

      Yeah, they’re both pretty wildly off base. Publishing papers that are vetted and used as a foundation for other work is science. Also, sorry, but developing advancements behind closed doors is still science. Oppenheimer’s secret research for the government is pretty fucking foundational. Thomas Edison wasn’t interested in sharing his ideas, but rather in selling them. Everyone remembers him.

      This argument reads like two people having an ego trip past each other.

      • xenoclast@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        6 months ago

        You were correct in the first, but the things you’re describing are product research and development.

        All super important, but not exactly what I call science as a socially beneficial activity humans do specifically to learn the truths of the universe.

    • OutsizedWalrus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      Science is just the process of testing things in the world in a reproducible way.

      LeCun’s argument is good career advice (you only get credit for what others know you did), but it’s not factual correct.