[LINK] In Retirement on this thread - Was - The meaning of

[Gordon Keith]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:42:50 PM stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> One currently doubts that any honest person could truly claim to be an
> 'expert' in climate science. We don't yet understand our environmental 
> systems in play, let alone systemic-interactions, and, even less do we
> understand the incremental changes to systems that mankind would cause.

I disagree with your definition of expert.

An expert is someone who has significant experience in a field not someone who 
understands everything about the field.

You can be an expert in black holes without being able to understand how they 
work.

You can be an expert in climate science without understanding the complete 
system. Though you do need to understand the limits of your understanding and 
where/who to go to for the bits you don't.

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html makes the point 
that no one knows how to make a computer mouse, it would still be possible to 
be an expert in computer mice. I doubt there is any field of science which is 
fully understood by any person, there are still plenty of experts.

Regards
Gordon