Hi Sparky
With refrernce to the
Principle of Dialogue
It's a nice ideal, but I think it is a lot easier said than done.
Much easier to implement Asimovs, 3 Laws of Robotics!
If we were all students in the same year at university, studying the same thing and hence all with a sound foundation on the subject, then it might be easier to adhere to the Principles of Dialogue.
Here though, we can have experienced, well educated people with a foundation in science often posting alongside people who may never have opened a science book. This is when dialogue can get difficult, communication can become next to useless, and things get very heated.
At times it is very, very difficult to suspend judgement, as what might seem like a plausible hypothesis to one person or persons lacking in crucial knowledge or education, will be seen as total utter nonsense to someone who knows better.
Suspending judgement on something that is clearly an hypothesis or sheer conjecture (a rational, plausible idea) is fair enough, but it's hard to suspend judgement on something you know to be science fact, but that others do not or will not accept as such.
To emphasise this, there is a guy on one forum (Hydrocars) that thinks that electricity is an atom, called the Lithium atom. And he also believes that hydrogen produced during electrolysis is not coming from water at all, but from impurities in the water! Worse still, he appears to have a loyal following of the equally insane. Trying to show him the error of his ways is a total waste of time because, of course... he knows better!
Now, try as I might, I can not bring myself to 'suspend my judgement' on the likes of this guy or anything he says. What someone like him brings to a discussion board is 'nothing good'. He plainly has an IQ of a particularly stupid single-celled organism, and for the welfare of the human race should have his testicles removed to prevent him breeding. In the past I think I've probably offered to do this for him
Needless to say, I don't suffer fools gladly and things tend to get very heated if and when this guy crawls out from under his stone. I hope I haven't tempted fate!
Anyway, I digress, I'm sure David Bohm has the very best of intentions.

Farrah Day.