They're Marching Against God - Your .02
07-19-2002, 05:50 PM
#262
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Santa Clara
Posts: 1,607
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ohhhh great... and I see you read as well as you write!
The sentence was "If you don't have the time or inclination to get a real education in a given field, please do us all a favor and don't talk about it."
You may know your stuff in computer engineering -- but let me tell you, you've already demonstrated that you don't know dick about physics. Let it go.
- Warren
The sentence was "If you don't have the time or inclination to get a real education in a given field, please do us all a favor and don't talk about it."
You may know your stuff in computer engineering -- but let me tell you, you've already demonstrated that you don't know dick about physics. Let it go.
- Warren
07-19-2002, 05:54 PM
#263
Registered User
[QUOTE]Originally posted by chroot
[B]Ohhhh great... and I see you read as well as you write!
The sentence was "If you don't have the time or inclination to get a real education in a given field, please do us all a favor and don't talk about it."
You may know your stuff in computer engineering -- but let me tell you, you've already demonstrated that you don't know dick about physics.
[B]Ohhhh great... and I see you read as well as you write!
The sentence was "If you don't have the time or inclination to get a real education in a given field, please do us all a favor and don't talk about it."
You may know your stuff in computer engineering -- but let me tell you, you've already demonstrated that you don't know dick about physics.
07-19-2002, 05:59 PM
#264
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Santa Clara
Posts: 1,607
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Actually, I bet you couldn't tell me quickly how to design an ASIC. It took you at least four years of engineering school to understand all of it.
And get off this "well, you don't know how the universe began either" kick. When did I ever say I did?
You have to understand that a layman's view of science is totally worthless. It's like the layman's view of driving a car -- "oh you know, you press the gas a bit and turn the wheel some." Do this help anybody? No. Do all those worthless pop-sci novels in Barnes & Noble help anyone? No.
This article you posted, how much do you even understand? Do you know what the SU(3) group is? Do you even know what the letters S and U stand for?
- Warren
And get off this "well, you don't know how the universe began either" kick. When did I ever say I did?
You have to understand that a layman's view of science is totally worthless. It's like the layman's view of driving a car -- "oh you know, you press the gas a bit and turn the wheel some." Do this help anybody? No. Do all those worthless pop-sci novels in Barnes & Noble help anyone? No.
This article you posted, how much do you even understand? Do you know what the SU(3) group is? Do you even know what the letters S and U stand for?
- Warren
07-19-2002, 06:12 PM
#266
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Santa Clara
Posts: 1,607
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm impressed that you knew what SU meant -- be honest though, did you have to look it up somewhere?
SU(3), by the way, is a group that describes the colour interactions (strong force).
That's the problem with watering down physics -- it just gets to be so confusing that no one, having heard a watered-down version, is any more capable of doing physics than they were from the start. Each piece of physics so strongly demands a good understanding of underlying pieces that it's almost impossible to water it down without losing almost all of its meaning.
But after reading a watered-down "layman's view," the armchair physicist is armed with lots of interesting terms (like SU(3)), but no concept of what they really mean, or why they exist in physics at all. Then they go out into the world and start making webpages about string theory.
Do you see my point?
- Warren
SU(3), by the way, is a group that describes the colour interactions (strong force).
That's the problem with watering down physics -- it just gets to be so confusing that no one, having heard a watered-down version, is any more capable of doing physics than they were from the start. Each piece of physics so strongly demands a good understanding of underlying pieces that it's almost impossible to water it down without losing almost all of its meaning.
But after reading a watered-down "layman's view," the armchair physicist is armed with lots of interesting terms (like SU(3)), but no concept of what they really mean, or why they exist in physics at all. Then they go out into the world and start making webpages about string theory.
Do you see my point?- Warren
07-19-2002, 06:16 PM
#267
[QUOTE]Originally posted by chroot
[B]Actually, I bet you couldn't tell me quickly how to design an ASIC.
[B]Actually, I bet you couldn't tell me quickly how to design an ASIC.
07-19-2002, 06:19 PM
#268
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Santa Clara
Posts: 1,607
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Uh, thanks JonBoy. I think.
Anyway, s2kpdx01, you should read about the Sokal hoax --
http://skepdic.com/sokal.html
It demonstrates remarkably well what I hate about the current state of affairs in popular science literature.
- Warren
Anyway, s2kpdx01, you should read about the Sokal hoax --
http://skepdic.com/sokal.html
It demonstrates remarkably well what I hate about the current state of affairs in popular science literature.
- Warren
07-19-2002, 08:56 PM
#269
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Yorba Linda, CA
Posts: 6,592
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally posted by chroot
Or that that exclamation point belongs inside the quote?
Or that that exclamation point belongs inside the quote?
[QUOTE]Originally posted by chroot
[B]By the way, I don't think I overgeneralized when I made the statement that you didn't understand the uncertainty relations.
)