Again and again I find is amusing that people not doing science themselves know best what is not science: even without trying. It is our luck that we have all these ignorant crackpots who do not know that trying to answer questions not made in text books is pseudoscience. It is also amazing that these Peter Woits have not noticed that the history of science ridiculizes again and again the besserwissers making ignorance and lazyness a virtue.
5 comments:
> the attempts to understand consciousness are not science and cannot be science since ... this cannot lead to any directly experimentally testable theory.
In my eyes, it is the one who proclaims so, can not see any possible experimental tests, let that be a statement of them. But perhaps others can. There is no contradiction there because I think even ignorance is relative. My ignorance can't be projected on others and expect to hold, to a higher degree than just as my subjective expectation. It's as much a statement about theirselves than about anything else. That's why I try my best to always speak for myself only.
I think objective hard knowledge is an illusion, idealisation and simplification.
Sometimes, complicated ideas can be almost unreadable to anyone but the author. But that doesn't make it wrong or of zero interest. Those who choose to ignore it, are free to do so, but they are also responsible for consequences of their own choices.
/Fredrik
08 09 07
I get what you are saying Fredrik and you are so right. Matti, why do you care what Mr. Woit says? i stopped visiting that site a long time ago because it produced nothing on the order of ideas, whether new or recycled. I never saw any papers qualifying half the crap I read on that site and frankly, his lack of foresight is obvious to make such a statement.
Forget about him and folk of his ilk and get down with the p-adics. I saw your comment on Kea's and apparently the young guys that wrote the divergent series did not really bring in all the connexions to p-adics as much as they could've. Then again you have done a good job of that yourself:)
Hi Matti. Mahndisa is right, of course. We shouldn't waste our time with these people, but I must admit I almost wrote a post on this myself. One can't completely ignore someone with 'popular appeal' in this game. I think sometimes there has to be a rebuttal for the benefit of the more reasonable readers, so thanks.
P.S. Tony Smith made a nice comment about forums for alternative ideas over on NEW.
You are right. My comment was a spontaneous reaction with long term emotional background coming from the habit of Woit to censor comments containing original thoughts because he wants to be the king of his little hill. This kind of inhonesty really irritates me. Karma's law in action;-). Next time Peter Woit revenges!
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