7 ms·
It's kind of impressive to me how much of modern science is really just people misapplying statistical models they don't understand to data that doesn't fit ass
by ianamartin 7y ago
It's kind of impressive to me how much of modern science is really just people misapplying statistical models they don't understand to data that doesn't fit assumptions.
Snark aside, what's really interesting is the way that different fields respond to it when the model errors are discovered. Physics and Chemistry seem to be fairly (or at least comparatively) professional and receptive when they find out about mistakes. But mention a model error or data mismatch to someone in Neuroscience or Climatology? You're suddenly an anti-science heretic and probably murder kittens for fun.
- alterAgnes 7y agoJust goes to show which ones are on the shakiest ground. And which ones are driven by political bias. Climatology has polar ice caps, at least. Neuroscience, though, you can bet, is about as disciplined as our awareness of the dietary preferences of pond scum. Does this species of amoeboid life enjoy cheeseburgers?
- blotter_paper 7y agoI feel like this has to do with supervenience. Higher order fields have more noise, which means that more hypotheses seem valid to different people and that it's easier to make incorrect arguments against valid hypotheses.
- Tagbert 7y agoFor Climatology, there are a lot of crazy or disingenuous people who try to weigh in on topics. That makes everyone gun-shy and likely to lash out at criticism because they are so used to getting attacked by unsupported arguments.
- ianamartin 7y agoThis is excellent. Thank you.
- ianamartin 7y agoI love that this comment is generating downvotes. Thanks for making my point!