The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense

I wasn't always sure where Shermer was headed next, but whether he is wading into the life of Alfred Lord Wallace or considering the effect of birth order in adoption of novel scientific theory, his discussion is absolutely compelling. I would start into a chapter absolutely sure I wasn't interested, only to find myself unable to stop reading until the chapter was over.

In fairness, the book is disjointed in that it turns to a variety of loosely related topics with little or no transistion. Still, Shermer makes each topic interesting and, taken as a whole, the book makes a compelling case for the power of science as a tool for interpreting our world. The discussion of Alfred Lord Wallace is marvellous, and includes insights I have read nowhere else.


An excellent treaty on critical thinking   May 19, 2005
Gaetan Lion
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is the second book on critical thinking I read by this author. The other was "Why People Believe Weird Things." They are both excellent. Michael Shermer is quite a polymath and original thinker. Armed with a Ph.D. in History of Science and an M.S. in Experimental Psychology, Shermer has acquired an outstanding understanding of the scientific method.

He is an excellent writer who has developed a lively style. He turns dry material (the integrity of science) into very entertaining books. You will note that my review jumps around quite a bit. That's because the book does too. It does not always follow a sequential pattern. However, it makes the book more fun to read.

At the beginning of the book, the author provides you with very good critical thinking tools, including 10 different steps to test a claim, and how to spot a crank. He also provides his assessment of the scientific credibility of various theories by assigning "fuzzy fractions." A 0.9 denotes a theory that is totally credible and well supported by science. A 0.1 denotes just the opposite. On such grounds, I like his distinction between SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) where he assigns it a respectable 0.5 and UFO where he assigns it a disrespectable 0.1. Thus, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may have scientific merit. Meanwhile, testimonials of alien abductions have none.

Near the end of the book, Shermer comes back to providing more thinking tools as he shares six key steps on how to develop one's creative genius in the chapter: The Amadeus Myth. This is a fascinating chapter where he uncovers that what we interpret as gifted genius is incredibly hard work. We just observe the end product: virtuosity. But, this masks the incredibly hard life long work these individuals had undertaken whether they were Mozart or Einstein.

Over several chapters he covers the interesting research from Sulloway who conducted psychological analysis of what makes a likely scientific innovator. Through his work, the author studies in detail the profile of Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, and other scientists. Such luminaries typically have a very high openness to new ideas combined with an equally high level of skepticism. And, it is this combination that makes them unique. How many people do you know are open to new radical concepts, yet have the critical thinking quotient of testing such wild claims. That's the type of mind that can differentiate between SETI and UFOs without being either embarrassed or gullible.

The author also provides an excellent synthesis on the subject of ecocide. In just a few pages, he summarizes very efficiently what Jared Diamond took over 500 pages to investigate in his most recent book "Collapse." Shermer describes how several regional primitive civilizations exploited their natural resources to the detriment of their own survival. These included the Incas of Machu Picchu and the Polynesians of Easter Island among others. He then asks the chilling question of what will we do? Will we prevent further environmental deterioration? Or, will we commit ecocide too? All along he promotes policies based on the best scientific evidence supported by data absent of any political bias.

Throughout the book, there is an underlying admiration of Darwin. He is the benchmark of scientific integrity, and scientific timelessness. He was with few peers in his capability of fighting the status quo, questioning his theories until he had anticipated every rational rebuttal the scientific community could throw at him. In one chapter, he contrasts Darwin with Freud. Darwin was concerned primarily with the scientific basis of his theories. He never stopped refining them, researching them deeper to make sure of their validity. As a result, Darwin's posterity is second to none. Instead, Freud got more concerned about fame and posterity than the soundness of his theories. As a result, posterity was not kind to Freud. As a sign of things to come within the book, early on Shermer had assigned a fuzzy fraction of 0.9 to Darwin's theory of evolution. Meanwhile, he assigned only a 0.1 to Freudian psychoanalytic theory. In other words, Darwin's theory fully withstood the test of time, while Freud did not.



Fuzzy Regions of Science   May 17, 2001
Aaron Baker (Evansville, IN United States)
This book shows that science is much more than a collection of facts that point to a simple answer. The author uses a diversity of subject matter to illustrate that the quest for scientific knowledge can be hindered by cultural, political, and personal ideals, but that the self-correcting mechanism of science will eventually prevail. From the formulation of Darwin's ideas to the controversial claim that race plays a factor in athletic ability, the author shows how scientific ideas are constructed and either built upon or rejected.

The information contained in this book makes for a very interesting read, but used as the tool it was written to be, it can show rational thinkers how to be more aware of their own biases that may cloud their thinking.


Valuable Perspectives on How and Why Theories Are Proven   May 21, 2001
Professor Donald Mitchell (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 96,000 Helpful Votes Globally)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

Human beings have unlimited imaginations. Connect two things in time, and some people are likely to assume a cause-and-effect relationship. As a result, many beliefs are based on nothing more than coincidence. Since science is a fairly new human activity, many beliefs that are now established in science started as beliefs built on associations or thought experiments. Michael Shermer, publisher and editor-in-chief of Skeptic magazine shows us the importance of that transition and how it is made. The book lacks the examples to completely establish its thesis, but will definitely give you new things to think about in the examples it does consider.

The book is divided into three parts: Borderlands Theories; Borderlands People; and Borderlands History. A borderland of science is the mental space where there is some factual evidence that is evolving to pin down how or why the phenomena occur. But the pinning down isn't very far along. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a good example. It is based on nothing more than a belief that there is intelligent life in the universe which wants to communicate with us. The approach to listening has been evolving with scientific discipline that will improve. Until we "hear" something though, it is hard for this activity to become mainstream science. Hypnosis is another good example of where science can explain some of the behavior (the "hidden observer" phenomenon in the mind), but not all. This places hypnosis in the borderlands area. I thought that the borderlands concept was a valuable one, and was glad that I learned it.

The book goes on to give you ten tests you can use to help establish whether a theory has anything to it. This list will probably save you from rushing off to follow some ideas that you happen to watch on a television show. In fact, the book is very good at explaining why much of what you see on television about phenomena makes no attempt to establish the scientific fact of or disprove the claims about what is going on.

Our thinking can become sloppy. There is an excellent section on the connection between race and success in sports that will make you rethink everything that you ever thought you knew in this subject. Why is it that no one claims that the Chinese have a genetic advantage in playing ping-pong? Did you know that it was once reported that Jewish people had a genetic advantage in playing basketball? Nature, nurture, opportunities and incentives are well explained in this section.

In the people section, you see how the psychological profiles of the scientists play a big role in how they pursue their work. Those who are very open to new ideas can get drawn off into nonsense if they are not careful. You will also learn a little about how birth order affects our willingness to accept or challenge existing scientific ideas. With too little openness, the plain truth can be missed.

There is a detailed example of how Darwin's approach to natural selection was more successful than the work of his closest counterpart, Alfred Russel Wallace. I found the example to be a trifle extended for my taste.

You will also get a look at why Copernicus was so revolutionary, and engendered such a strong reaction. Carl Sagan is explored and explained in a nicely balanced way that added to my understanding of the man.

In the history section, the eco-terrorism of destroying the trees on Easter Island to move the statues is told as a cautionary tale of how we can create problems for ourselves if we are not far-sighted enough. Mr. Shermer also makes a good argument for making scientific debate into an opportunity for a plus-sum game (where everyone benefits) rather than a zero-sum game where only one scientist can win.

The book ends on a humorous note as the Piltdown man hoax originally fools people, but is eventually exposed. We need discipline in our science or it can be as foolish as not using the scientific method.

Although Mr. Shermer doesn't say so in the book, you will definitely get the impression that he assumes that any scientifically untested idea is probably junk. On the other hand, many areas of human experience will probably not get scientific testing anytime soon. There simply isn't the interest or the money available to do so. It seems to me that we need some method to move ideas that look promising along towards science at a faster rate. I was struck recently that although it has been known for many years that people in Okinawa live a long time, it inexplicably took scientists more decades than necessary to get organized to study what this might mean. The result can be read about in The Okinawa Program. In the meantime, many less worthy projects were pursued on how to "cure" sick people who are just being hurt by their lifestyle. Mr. Shermer needed to address this problem of scientific slowness to work on the obviously important in order to make this a five-star book.

After you finish enjoying this book, I suggest that you try out the ten tests on an area where you think you are dealing with a borderland issue. This might be how the stock market works, whether chiropractic care is helpful in some situations, or the effectiveness of acupuncture. See if the tests help you to take more useful actions as a result.

Advance rapidly toward knowledge through carefully-tested observation!