I still enjoy reading the outliers (not the cranks, the ones who could be the next Pauli).
(emphasis added)
Yes. If everything operated on a pure consensus basis, progress would come to an end.
This doesn't even have to be at the fringe; for decades, just about every textbook claimed that normal human cells have 24 pairs of chromosomes. The correct number (or maybe I should say the currently-accepted number) is 23. This was even stated in textbooks that had accompanying photographs that clearly showed 23.
Consensus is a useful tool, but it's not infallible, and sometimes it goes spectacularly wrong.
(emphasis added)
Yes. If everything operated on a pure consensus basis, progress would come to an end.
This doesn't even have to be at the fringe; for decades, just about every textbook claimed that normal human cells have 24 pairs of chromosomes. The correct number (or maybe I should say the currently-accepted number) is 23. This was even stated in textbooks that had accompanying photographs that clearly showed 23.
Consensus is a useful tool, but it's not infallible, and sometimes it goes spectacularly wrong.