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> My point is that what is considered orthodox can change in just a couple of decades; There will clearly be more revolutions in physics over time. We know th
by vecter 5y ago
> My point is that what is considered orthodox can change in
just a couple of decades;
There will clearly be more revolutions in physics over time. We know the Standard Model is are wrong. Dark Matter and Dark Energy may be right or wrong. We need more experimental evidence to help us decide. This is not a new insight that you've had. Literally every physicist knows this.
> it's not insane to question whether an orthodoxy that's been in place for just a couple of decades (and is itself pretty speculative) should have the status of scientific fact.
What makes you think that physicists think that anything that's been discussed is scientific "fact"?
More importantly, there is no value in you, me, or any layman without an even undergraduate-level understanding of math and physics questioning anything that you don't know a single thing about. You don't even know what you don't know, and despite your claims of humility, your earlier writings clearly demonstrated either incredible arrogance, naivety, or both.
> Similarly, I'm not an economist; I can't prove that Friedman had the wrong end of the stick. But I can still make reasonable judgements about a government's economic policies, and my judgements are sometimes more right than those of experts.
This analogy is wrong. I could go into why you probably didn't even understand why the experts believed what they believed, but I don't have time for that. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And even if someone is wrong, their thought process could have been better and more informed than yours.
Your analogy breaks down because none of that has any bearing to cosmology. You don't understand any foundational knowledge required to even begin to have an elementary conversation. Saying "I don't buy these existing theories" is actually making a very strong statement, because it implies that you understand what the current theories are, why they are what they are, and all of the other theories that have been ruled out for various reasons. And if you don't know any of this, then your opinion is literally worthless in the epistemological sense.
When I was an undergraduate studying computer science, I met a graduate mathematics student at a programming competition. I asked him if he could explain his research to me. He said "no". I wasn't upset, nor did I tell him that his theories were wrong. Rather, I was enlightened. I realized that there was no way he could possibly explain the abstract concepts that he was studying to a person who barely understood linear algebra. It would have taken me years of hard studying to begin to be able to grasp the kinds of problems that he was tackling, the approaches that he was taking, and why. This is no different.
- denton-scratch 5y ago> More importantly, there is no value in you, me, or any layman without an even undergraduate-level understanding of math and physics questioning anything that you don't know a single thing about. It's not something "I don't know a single thing about". I know some things about it. Perhaps I could observe (since we're on the topic of what people don't know) that you don't actually know what I do and don't know. > You don't even know what you don't know, I cheerfully concede that the number of things I don't know is infinite. > and despite your claims of humility, your earlier writings clearly demonstrated either incredible arrogance, naivety, or both. If it's "incredible", then you would appear to have a problem; it seems that you are convinced by my demonstration of arrogance and naivety, even though it's not believable to you. Make up your mind. I've not insulted anyone; all I've done is to question certain ideas. You, on the other hand, have written a long comment that consists of nothing but personal insults, and contains no information. Back in the Usenet days, one would have said <plonk>.
- vecter 5y agoWhat do you know about Dark Matter that would be insightful? Please share.