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Where do people get this idea that "we" don't know the mechanism for gravity? http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/no-one-knows-wh.html http://www.overcomingb
by Eliezer 18y ago
Where do people get this idea that "we" don't know the mechanism for gravity?
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/no-one-knows-wh.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/no-one-knows-wh.html
"Mechanisms" that don't give you better predictions really are almost always crackpot. Really understanding a new mechanism usually comes with better predictions of something - though not always everything.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoI was speaking of the propagation of gravity which defies C as a limit on mechanical interaction. you also missed the point of the overcomingbias post, which wasn't that his uncle was wrong, but that he was right for the wrong reason. If an idiot tells you the sky is blue that doesn't make it false. His uncle wasn't making a specific claim against the theory of gravitation, but using gravity as an example of the ignorance of scientists as evidence against listening to their claims in general. this kind of reasoning is common and dangerous.
- scott_s 18y agoI doubt Eliezer missed the point of his own essay.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agohahaha foot in mouth. but I stand by my interpretation of the essay.
- Eliezer 18y agothe propagation of gravity which defies C as a limit on mechanical interaction Nazgul, you've obviously got no clue how gravity works. You may not realize it, but you don't. Physicists, on the other hand, do. This may seem surprising and even insulting, but it shouldn't. This is not a tiny little hunter-gatherer tribe and it's not surprising that there are people out there with knowledge of incredible specialized depth built upon ages of scientific labor all of which you have not the tiniest hint even exists. Such is the point of the essay.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoright, but I'm not using my own ignorance as evidence that I should ignore scientists when they claim that they do in fact understand the mechanism of gravity. I was under the impression that this was one of the main problems with our understanding of gravity. Have any pointers on material? all wikipedia says that is useful to me is that bodies don't transmit information about their position faster than c, which does solve that particular problem. I just can't wrap my head conceptually around how that works from the frame of reference of the body being acted upon.