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#2042·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year agoScience writer John Horgan wrote his own article about his experience at Rat Fest:
My Weekend at “Rat Fest” — John Horgan (The Science Writer)HOBOKEN, OCTOBER 4, 2025. “It feels a little cult-y.” That’s how I respond when Logan Chipkin asks what I think of “Rat Fest.” Let me back up a bit: Last summer, I get an email from someone named Logan Chipkin, who founded something called the Conjecture Institute . He wants my permission to use
Popper himself, when I interviewed him in 1992, was a comically dogmatic denouncer of dogmatism. He kept insisting he was right and his critics wrong.
When I told Popper a former student accused him of not tolerating criticism, he responded: “It is completely untrue! I was happy when I got criticism! Of course, not when I would answer the criticism… and the person would still go on with it.” Then Popper would eject the student from the class.
Ejecting the student seems over the top. But there’s a difference between openness to criticism and relativism. If you address a criticism but the critic just continues as if you hadn’t, I can see how that’s frustrating. If there’s no new reasoning or evidence to the contrary, I think it’s fine to “insist[]” that you are right and your critics wrong. It’s possible to determine that objectively. That’s not dogma – it’s integrity.