3 ms·

Since Astrology is bunk, it might be interesting just to see what they're doing/claiming with this. It's very unlikely astrologers have created or added anythi

Since Astrology is bunk, it might be interesting just to see what they're doing/claiming with this. It's very unlikely astrologers have created or added anything that's useful or applicable to astronomy. It's more likely that they've taking things astronomers have discovered and used and worked that into their quackery to make slicker quackery.

fusiongyro 9y ago
I think it would be interesting if it was like a special-purpose calculator for astronomy, that happened to have pointless astrology window dressing. I also think it would be interesting, albeit in a totally different way, to know what "algorithms" they're up to in there, even though it's bullshit. Definitely agree about their quackery.
jawbone3 9y ago
Astronomy now is a science, but historically there wasn't any distinction and much astronometry (measurements of the sky) was done to increase the accuracy of the predictions. It could well be they are doing epicycles caculations to determine stellar positions etc
- msla 9y ago
  Right: Astronomy is astrology which advanced beyond the pre-scientific mindset, and made progress, as opposed to stagnating. We can see similar progressions in the medical world, and we can see that one thing holds true: The scientific version of the field became useful to society as a whole, whereas the non-scientific one remains only useful to the practitioners, and then only to the extent they charge for their services.
cutler 9y ago
Greater minds than yours esteemed astrology as the "noble art" - Claudius Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, John Dee and Carl Jung to name a few. Have you actually studied astrology beyond newspaper sun signs? If not, you're not in a position to dismiss it.
secabeen 9y ago
Interestingly, astrologers have made significant contributions to the history of timekeeping. Since they really care about clock changes, time zones, mean solar time, and exactly when these things took effect, they've done a lot of good helping us better document that history. (It shows up in the Unix TZ project)

fusiongyro 9y ago

I think it would be interesting if it was like a special-purpose calculator for astronomy, that happened to have pointless astrology window dressing. I also think it would be interesting, albeit in a totally different way, to know what "algorithms" they're up to in there, even though it's bullshit. Definitely agree about their quackery.

jawbone3 9y ago

Astronomy now is a science, but historically there wasn't any distinction and much astronometry (measurements of the sky) was done to increase the accuracy of the predictions. It could well be they are doing epicycles caculations to determine stellar positions etc

msla 9y ago
Right: Astronomy is astrology which advanced beyond the pre-scientific mindset, and made progress, as opposed to stagnating. We can see similar progressions in the medical world, and we can see that one thing holds true: The scientific version of the field became useful to society as a whole, whereas the non-scientific one remains only useful to the practitioners, and then only to the extent they charge for their services.

cutler 9y ago

Greater minds than yours esteemed astrology as the "noble art" - Claudius Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, John Dee and Carl Jung to name a few. Have you actually studied astrology beyond newspaper sun signs? If not, you're not in a position to dismiss it.

secabeen 9y ago

Interestingly, astrologers have made significant contributions to the history of timekeeping. Since they really care about clock changes, time zones, mean solar time, and exactly when these things took effect, they've done a lot of good helping us better document that history. (It shows up in the Unix TZ project)