Dr Kaku was discussing how Jules Verne predicted in 1863 what the world would be like in 100 years. Dr Kaku described the world of 1863 as being that people only got around by horse and when it rained, roads turned to mud – there was no other way to get around and the telegraph didn’t exist yet, so people didn’t know what was going on.
Railroads and telegraphs were in common use by the 1840s. The National Road connecting Baltimore to Wheeling WV was finished in 1818 as a paved road. The plank road connecting Detroit to Grand Rapids was finished in 1824. The Erie canal opened in 1826. Daily newspapers were published daily in every major city.
Dr Kaku is more accurately describing the world of 1776, but even then the Post Road from New York to Boston was substantial enough to reliably transport wagons.
The point of this is just because you have a Ph.D and are an expert in theoretical physics doesn’t mean you know anything about other fields.
Case in point: James Hansen.
I admire Dr. Kaku and I find his various programs to be vastly interesting. But I’d just as soon that he’d stay away from such things as economics and history, at least until he has shown minimal peer-reviewed credentials in those areas. For crying out loud, even so-called scientists, like Penn State’s Michael Mann, for instance, have enough trouble doing actual science. When I was was striving for my degrees, the heart of science was NEVER to prove your hypothesis, but to attempt to disprove (test) it through data gathering and statistical analysis, all purposely designed from NULL HYPOTHESIS to conclusion to AVOID ADVOCACY of pet ideas … which is what Mann apparently has done by hiding results that don’t square with his “global warming our fault” theories.
Michio, please keep your head in the stars. Onegai itashimasu!
He does a political show on Pacifica worth listening to.
Maybe two years ago, he went on a rant about his girl friend that I found amusing. He got into an argument with her about boiling eggs – he pointed out that eggs cook no faster if the water is just barely boiling versus if the heat is turned way up.
Just a few of the things that come to mind:
– adding salt to the water would make a difference
– the temperature of the water is not uniform – that’s why it boils
– boiling fast creates motion, which moves the eggs around, so the yolk stays in the middle as the white firms up
– cooking as fast as possible is probably not the goal anyhow
– telling your girlfriend she is cooking wrong increases the probabililty that you end up doing the cooking or you have no girl friend (not that I would know…)
Seems to be just another example of the expert era. While someone may be an expert in one particular field, they start to speak as a person of authority in areas outside their field of study or experience.