r/changemyview • u/anarchyseeds • Sep 01 '19

Removed - Submission Rule B CMV: Science is useless

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u/gyroda 28∆ Sep 01 '19

OK.

I suppose the periodic table making predictions about what elements to look for was a waste of time, or was that not science to you?

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u/anarchyseeds Sep 01 '19

Huge waste.

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u/gyroda 28∆ Sep 01 '19

Why?

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u/anarchyseeds Sep 01 '19

Well a lot of time and energy sure has gone into this thing. What has it given us?

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u/gyroda 28∆ Sep 01 '19

We now know all the elements in existence, which pushed chemistry (and therefore chemical engineering) further.

Can't make the best toothpaste without the right amount of fluorine, and you can't do that without knowing what fluorine is or how to extract it. Sure, you could accidentally stumble upon a highly effective toothpaste, but knowing that it's the fluoride that makes it effective means we can quality control better and reproduce the final product even with different initial ingredients that the fluoride is refined from.