"So is the idea that the author decided to observe reality per the consensus to get his PhD?"
Although that is certainly one plausible reading, I tend to think that the protagonist (like everyone else in the world, it seems) has no choice but to go along with consensus reality as outside influences lead him to unconsciously accept it. (This is why "young" and "inexperienced" proto-scientists made "mistakes" as they observed their experiments, then got the "correct" results when "wiser" minds show them their "errors.")
One could also read the story as an allegory for going along with the crowd in any way, which we all do to some extent or other.
You make a good point. The premise of the story offers no good explanation for why Newtonian physics was refined (not overturned) by Einsteinian physics. Of course, one could postulate that certain minds are manipulating reality more than others, but then we wind up with another "wild talent" story . . .
Re: "On Handling the Data"
Although that is certainly one plausible reading, I tend to think that the protagonist (like everyone else in the world, it seems) has no choice but to go along with consensus reality as outside influences lead him to unconsciously accept it. (This is why "young" and "inexperienced" proto-scientists made "mistakes" as they observed their experiments, then got the "correct" results when "wiser" minds show them their "errors.")
One could also read the story as an allegory for going along with the crowd in any way, which we all do to some extent or other.
You make a good point. The premise of the story offers no good explanation for why Newtonian physics was refined (not overturned) by Einsteinian physics. Of course, one could postulate that certain minds are manipulating reality more than others, but then we wind up with another "wild talent" story . . .