5 ms·

Seems like a misguided rant. The whole beginning of "but what about applications?" makes no sense. The complaints about what is essentially p-hacking might app

by ivalm 7y ago

Seems like a misguided rant. The whole beginning of "but what about applications?" makes no sense. The complaints about what is essentially p-hacking might apply to CERN (but probably not), but doesnt work with LIGO where many events were detected by their model-free pipeline.

EdwardDiego 7y ago
IIRC the author doesn't believe black holes exist, so not surprised.
- ivalm 7y ago
  Sure, but there are two possible ways to "not believe" in black holes. One can say "there is an alternative not yet known explanation to gravity and this explanation will not have singularities/math artifacts." While GR is one of the most verified theories in physics I have some modicum of sympathy for that view. What is disingenuous is her view "black holes dont exist because GR measurements are bad." Because they really are good and statistically significant. For LIGO results you can reject the nature of the compact bodies (although the fits are very good), but you cant reject the event of the detection.
sprash 7y ago
Indeed, but if you ignore much of the crack-pottery and the lack of understanding of fundamental statistics you could find some valid criticism of current physics in this piece (but more like needles in a hay stack). Physics is now entering a new era of "exploration". This means lots of data and little results. The career of the average scientist will be a series of papers where they prove that they found nothing. I can see how this is frustrating or boring to many people but it is the only way forward. The low hanging fruit has been harvested decades ago. The methodologies of measurements have to adjust accordingly and the purpose of experiments has to be advertised correctly.
- ivalm 7y ago
  I mean I left physics after doing my PhD precisely because I felt it wasnt exciting, but I disagree with the criticism of "big data." I know analytic results are romanticized and even now physicists are looking to express things in but a few equations, but it might also be that the world is complicated and to learn the details you really need to crunch a lot. Kind of like in avalanches, lots of things can be modeled by power laws but the actual details are incredibly messy and non-integrable.
- vanderZwan 7y ago
  > Indeed, but if you ignore much of the crack-pottery She claims to have studied physics for twenty years and have a PhD in accelerator physics. If true (and she seems too well-informed to be lying), her crack-pottery is at the very least well-informed enough to likely contain many useful insights and views worth considering. Especially regarding physicist culture. There is a page where she shares a few of her novel[0], and speaking as someone who dropped out of physics myself (just a lot earlier than she did) I certainly recognize more than a few themes in the feedback contained therein. [0] https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/reviews/ https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/reviews/
  - blix 7y ago
    It's kinda neat that one of her major complaints with physicist culture is pernicious groupthink, and that some of the primary arguments against her are prima facie dismissals for not subscribing to consensus.
    - ghgfhgfhn 7y ago
      Yup, I can never understand these snap responses. I don't share the desire for authority to be correct that almost everyone else seems to share. Maybe the difference is most seek safety and conformity by adhering to groups and react negatively when those groups are attacked. Whereas others like myself seek novelty and truth and not safety. It's a haughty thought. But I wonder if it is actually true...
    - 7y ago

by ivalm 7y ago

EdwardDiego 7y ago

IIRC the author doesn't believe black holes exist, so not surprised.

ivalm 7y ago
Sure, but there are two possible ways to "not believe" in black holes. One can say "there is an alternative not yet known explanation to gravity and this explanation will not have singularities/math artifacts." While GR is one of the most verified theories in physics I have some modicum of sympathy for that view. What is disingenuous is her view "black holes dont exist because GR measurements are bad." Because they really are good and statistically significant. For LIGO results you can reject the nature of the compact bodies (although the fits are very good), but you cant reject the event of the detection.

sprash 7y ago

Indeed, but if you ignore much of the crack-pottery and the lack of understanding of fundamental statistics you could find some valid criticism of current physics in this piece (but more like needles in a hay stack). Physics is now entering a new era of "exploration". This means lots of data and little results. The career of the average scientist will be a series of papers where they prove that they found nothing. I can see how this is frustrating or boring to many people but it is the only way forward. The low hanging fruit has been harvested decades ago. The methodologies of measurements have to adjust accordingly and the purpose of experiments has to be advertised correctly.

ivalm 7y ago
I mean I left physics after doing my PhD precisely because I felt it wasnt exciting, but I disagree with the criticism of "big data." I know analytic results are romanticized and even now physicists are looking to express things in but a few equations, but it might also be that the world is complicated and to learn the details you really need to crunch a lot. Kind of like in avalanches, lots of things can be modeled by power laws but the actual details are incredibly messy and non-integrable.
vanderZwan 7y ago
> Indeed, but if you ignore much of the crack-pottery She claims to have studied physics for twenty years and have a PhD in accelerator physics. If true (and she seems too well-informed to be lying), her crack-pottery is at the very least well-informed enough to likely contain many useful insights and views worth considering. Especially regarding physicist culture. There is a page where she shares a few of her novel[0], and speaking as someone who dropped out of physics myself (just a lot earlier than she did) I certainly recognize more than a few themes in the feedback contained therein. [0] https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/reviews/ https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/reviews/
- blix 7y ago
  It's kinda neat that one of her major complaints with physicist culture is pernicious groupthink, and that some of the primary arguments against her are prima facie dismissals for not subscribing to consensus.
  - ghgfhgfhn 7y ago
    Yup, I can never understand these snap responses. I don't share the desire for authority to be correct that almost everyone else seems to share. Maybe the difference is most seek safety and conformity by adhering to groups and react negatively when those groups are attacked. Whereas others like myself seek novelty and truth and not safety. It's a haughty thought. But I wonder if it is actually true...
  - 7y ago