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> They certainly could be wrong, but these sorts of comments remind me of Feynman's remarks about non-physicists frequently suggesting the experts didn't consid
by Pyramus 6y ago
> They certainly could be wrong, but these sorts of comments remind me of Feynman's remarks about non-physicists frequently suggesting the experts didn't consider [X] [...]
I'm intrigued, do you have a source for that? It's a phenomenon I came across daily (say Covid) and because the world is becoming increasingly complex I would argue that so does the appeal of 'simple' explanations, or 'why the experts are wrong'.
- nottrobin 6y agoYes this is a very interesting philosophical concept to me. I think the counterpoint to it is that it's also somewhat common for specialists to get stuck in local Maxima, as their expertise provide a deep but potentially narrow framework for thinking about the problem, and people with more broad experience may be more able to find more imaginative solutions. There was a piece that I can probably dig up about the theory that this has quite seriously affected e.g. theoretical / particule physics - for decades we have spent more and more money trying to prove more and more complex versions of superstring theory etc., and what might be needed is more whacky out-of-the-box ideas that could lead to simpler explanations that fit our subatomic observations better.
- meowface 6y agoI spent a while trying to look for it, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. I think I may have initially seen it linked in an HN comment a while ago.
- axolotlgod 6y agoI'm not quite sure where it came from originally, I've seen it attributed to Feynman for sure. Michael Crichton described it as "Gell-Mann Amnesia" in a talk: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/ https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/