Known unknowns: How to communicate certainly in an uncertain world

“From the speed of global warming to the likelihood of developing cancer, we must grasp uncertainty to understand the world. Here’s how to know your unknowns” By Anne Marthe van der Bles, New Scientist, 3rd July 2019

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24332372-600-known-unknowns-how-to-communicate-certainly-in-an-uncertain-world/

The above reminds me of the philosophers’ demands in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: “We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!” The philosophers were representatives of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Thinking Persons and they wanted the universe’s second-best computer (Deep Thought) turned off, because of a demarcation dispute/.  It turns out, according to the above paper, that their demands were not so unreasonable after all :-)

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