Richard Feynman described a group of scientifically uneducated native islanders who wanted to recreate the experience of cargo planes landing on their island during World War II. They built an imitation of a runway and huts in which a man wore wooden pieces on his head to imitate radio headphones. This example of a "cargo cult science" was used to illustrate how:
A) practitioners of pseudoscience go through the motions of doing science, but actually are disconnected from the substance of science.
B) scientifically uneducated people can be fooled into superstitious rituals that do not work to produce real effects.
C) real science can advance the technology of scientifically uneducated people.
D) people from scientifically sophisticated developed countries differ from the scientifically educated people of developing countries.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Feynman used the example of the cargo cult science to illustrate how practitioners of pseudoscience go through the motions of doing science, but actually are disconnected from the substance of science. The native islanders went through the motions of creating a runway and imitating radio headphones, but their actions did not lead to the desired outcome of receiving cargo planes. This is similar to how practitioners of pseudoscience may use scientific-sounding language or perform experiments, but their ideas are not based on sound scientific principles or evidence.

Richard Feynman Described a Group of Scientifically Uneducated Native Islanders