科学是拉动人类前进的引擎Science Is the Engine That Pulls Humanity Forward
Naval：欢迎布雷特（Brett）来到这档以他命名的 Naval 播客。我们最初的话题是关于创造财富的永恒原则，之后我们略微触及了内心的幸福、平和与安康。
首先，我是一个科学的学生。我是个失败的物理学家——我爱物理学，想投身其中，但我从不觉得自己能在这个领域出类拔萃。我更被技术吸引，而技术是应用科学。
尽管如此，我仍然是科学的学生，仍然为科学着迷。我真正的英雄全都是科学家，因为我相信科学是拉动人类前进的引擎。
我们很幸运，活在这样一个时代：科技进步看起来不像"可能"，而像"必然"。我们已经习惯了"生活总会变得更好"这种想法。
尽管人们对生产力增长停滞抱怨不休，但现实是，任何拥有一部智能手机、开着一辆车、甚至只是住在一栋房子里的人，都一次又一次地看到技术改善了他们的生活质量。我们把这种进步视为理所当然，而这要归功于科学。
对我来说，科学也是对真理的研究。我们知道什么是真的？我们又怎么知道某件事是真的？随着年龄渐长，我发现自己对任何不浸透真理的事物都无法保持注意力。
这期播客系列的背景是：我曾以为自己很懂科学。但有很多关于科学的东西我想当然地接受了，比如什么是科学理论、科学理论是如何形成的。
我们大多数人对此只有一个模糊的概念。有些人认为科学就是科学家做的事情——这存在定义上的问题：什么是科学家？另一些人认为科学就是做出可证伪或可检验的预测，也许这更接近真相。有时人们会说："就是科学方法。"那科学方法又是什么？然后他们就开始描述初中时做的化学实验，之后就没了下文。
尤其是现在，人们叫我们"相信科学"——这本身就是一个矛盾的说法——人们尊重科学，却并不理解科学是什么。
"科学是什么"这个观念常常被劫持，有时是被那些想说服你相信科学的好心人，有时是被那些想左右你思考、感受和行为方式的别有用心的人。
Naval: Welcome, Brett, to the eponymous Naval podcast. The topic that we started out on was the timeless principles of wealth creation. And then we touched a little bit on internal happiness and peace and well-being.
I’m first and foremost a student of science. I’m a failed physicist, in the sense that I loved physics, I wanted to pursue it, but I never felt I was going to be great at it. I was more pulled into technology, which is applied science.
Nevertheless, I remain a student of science. I remain fascinated by it. All of my real heroes are scientists, because I believe science is the engine that pulls humanity forward.
We’re lucky to live in an age when scientific and technological progress seem not likely, but inevitable. We’ve gotten used to this idea that life always gets better.
Despite all the complaining about how productivity growth is stagnant, the reality is, anyone who owns a smartphone or drives a car or even lives in a house has seen technology improve their quality of life over and over again. We take this progress for granted, and it’s thanks to science.
To me, science is also the study of truth. What do we know to be true? How do we know something to be true? As I get older, I find myself incapable of having an attention span for anything that isn’t steeped in the truth.
The background on this particular podcast series is that I thought I knew a lot about science. And there was a lot about science that I took for granted, such as what a scientific theory is and how scientific theories are formed.
Most of us have a vague idea of it. Some people think science is what scientists do, which has a definitional problem. What is a scientist? Other people think science is making falsifiable or testable predictions, and maybe that’s closer to it. Sometimes people say, “It’s the scientific method.” And what is the scientific method? And then they start describing their junior high school chemistry experiment and lose the trail after that.
Especially these days, when we’re told to “believe in science”—which is an oxymoron—people respect science, but they don’t understand what science is.
The idea of what science is gets hijacked, sometimes by well-meaning people who want to convince you of the science and sometimes by not so well-meaning people who want to influence the way that you think and feel and act.