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I'm saying you should be careful because it is easy to give a false impression that you are discussing a scientifically supported phenomenon where really it is

I'm saying you should be careful because it is easy to give a false impression that you are discussing a scientifically supported phenomenon where really it is basically the musings of a fiction writer. the name "Gell-Mann Amnesia" was, in fact, chosen by Crichton self-consciously so that this false impression would be more likely in discussions such as this one. Lack of context and a fancy sounding name serve to obfuscate the truth here.

mikeash 11y ago
Is it really? People throw around fancy-sounding names like Betteridge's Law of Headlines and Sturgeon's Law without any qualifiers and nobody seems to mistake those for scientific principles. I'm not sure it's worth defending against people taking a fancy-sounding name and taking that as an indication that it's scientific principle without even bothering to take five seconds to look it up.
- metaphorm 11y ago
  Betteridge's Law is named after Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, who wrote directly on the subject. Sturgeon's Law is named after Ted Sturgeon, a fiction writer, who actually basically coined the phrase originally (I think he did anyway). Michael Crichton, on the other hand, did not call his idea "Crichton's Law of Media Analysis". He deliberately gave it an obfuscatory name and attempted to associate it with a well regarded physicist to give the impression that the law was scientific in some way. It was a deliberate misdirection, done for effect. Because of the intrinsically duplicitous nature of the name "Gell-Mann Amnesia" I think its inappropriate to continue referring to the effect under that name. Call it Crichton's Law or whatever. Lets not repeat the original misdirection though. It is fundamentally dishonest and does a disservice to the legacy of Murray Gell-Mann.
  - spinlock 11y ago
    Oooo, oooo, do Jurasic Park next.

mikeash 11y ago

Is it really? People throw around fancy-sounding names like Betteridge's Law of Headlines and Sturgeon's Law without any qualifiers and nobody seems to mistake those for scientific principles. I'm not sure it's worth defending against people taking a fancy-sounding name and taking that as an indication that it's scientific principle without even bothering to take five seconds to look it up.

metaphorm 11y ago
Betteridge's Law is named after Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, who wrote directly on the subject. Sturgeon's Law is named after Ted Sturgeon, a fiction writer, who actually basically coined the phrase originally (I think he did anyway). Michael Crichton, on the other hand, did not call his idea "Crichton's Law of Media Analysis". He deliberately gave it an obfuscatory name and attempted to associate it with a well regarded physicist to give the impression that the law was scientific in some way. It was a deliberate misdirection, done for effect. Because of the intrinsically duplicitous nature of the name "Gell-Mann Amnesia" I think its inappropriate to continue referring to the effect under that name. Call it Crichton's Law or whatever. Lets not repeat the original misdirection though. It is fundamentally dishonest and does a disservice to the legacy of Murray Gell-Mann.
- spinlock 11y ago
  Oooo, oooo, do Jurasic Park next.