tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post8098685908577894255..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: When Is a Fact Not a Fact?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-26528442834906381932017-02-15T00:27:40.590-08:002017-02-15T00:27:40.590-08:00To be fair, Cornell West was critical of Obama for...To be fair, Cornell West was critical of Obama for compromising too much and not standing up to the Republicans, and like not standing up for his black brothers enough.<br /><br />http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/06/22/cornel_west_on_obama_the_first_black_president_has_become_the_first_niggerized_black_president.html<br />----<br />Reacting to President Obama's use of the n-word on Marc Maron's podcast, Cornel West called him the first "niggerized" president in an appearance on CNN. West criticized Obama as "a person who is afraid and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy."<br /><br />"Too many black people are niggerized," West said Monday on CNN. "I would say the first black president has become the first niggerized black president."<br /><br />"A niggerized black person is a black person who is afraid and scared and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy and fighting against white supremacy," West explained. "So when many of us said we have to fight against racism, what were we told? 'No, he can't deal with racism because he has other issues, political calculations. He's the president of all America, not just black America.' We know he's president of all America but white supremacy is American as cherry pie."<br />---<br /><br />And racism is clearly a complicated place where "facts are not facts". Or the problem is maybe the difference between "single facts" and "patterns of facts". Its easier to deal with single facts, but when we imagine patterns, like systemic discrimination as Blacks see, or systemic favoritism of undeserved minorities, as Whites see, both are not facts, but interpretations based on selective facts, and both sides have many true facts to support their conclusions, while both sides are necessarily incomplete.<br /><br />Fact-checking is clearly necessary, yet also clearly not sufficient. People read opinion pieces because they want and need interpretations of facts. And if you consider a wide range of opinions you may have a good chance of breaking through your own predetermined conclusions and seeing something closer to what is. But if you don't pick educated and knowledgeable sources, you may end up worse than you started. But at least you might be able to see which "facts" are in dispute.<br /><br />Overall it does seem like democracy is an impossibility. We all have to trust that other people know more than we do, and trust they are not trying to deceive us. Once we lose that trust, we're very vulnerable to listening to fools, and not being able to decide who is who.<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-77180753822358018422017-02-13T13:33:18.354-08:002017-02-13T13:33:18.354-08:00I agree. And you're right about the 3-Body Pro...I agree. And you're right about the 3-Body Problem. It's humbling (or should be) how fast we get to problems that hit the limits.<br /><br />One of my favorite jokes is about perfectly elastic spherical horses moving in a vacuum on a frictionless track.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-71233915470904475742017-02-13T13:17:22.154-08:002017-02-13T13:17:22.154-08:00RE: Guided Missile Guidance; How It Works
http:/...RE: Guided Missile Guidance; How It Works<br /><br />http://www.tacmissileers.org/usaf-training-missile-guidance/Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-45531536670043088452017-02-13T12:45:50.397-08:002017-02-13T12:45:50.397-08:00TW....I'm pretty sure that the multiple-body p...TW....I'm pretty sure that the multiple-body problem in celestial mechanics can't be solved analytically but needs to be solved numerically....that is certainly the case with artillery trajectory calculations, for example. In both cases, you can write the differential equations that describe the problem, but the solution requires stepping through small intervals of time and repeatedly doing the appropriate calculations. Unlike the situation with, say, a simple falling body in a vacuum, where you *can* start with the equation that describes the motion and derive analytically another equation that will tell you the solution...no step-by-step computation required.<br /><br />So I think it is accurate to refer to the celestial mechanics problem, like the artillery trajectory problem, as a model.<br /><br />David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-73562753074818159332017-02-13T11:48:07.160-08:002017-02-13T11:48:07.160-08:00David, celestial mechanics (Moon forecasting examp...David, celestial mechanics (Moon forecasting example) is a straightforward problem solved with an analytical closed-form (albeit sometimes complex) mathematical expression called a model. It's true that the Moon won't be precisely at the predicted point due to random perturbations (eg, space objects moving by), but, as you note, the model will be close.<br /><br />In everyday conversation, a computer simulation is applied to problems having no known closed-form solutions, like telecom network traffic management or, horrors, climate. Usually, these problems are simply too complex to model in closed form.<br /><br />So comparing the two is really apples/oranges. But you're right, it's tempting to look at models and lump them with simulations. Dangerous mistake, though. :-)<br /><br />It's particularly confusing, and vexing, when simulations are called computer models.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-56281273788760921112017-02-13T09:31:38.471-08:002017-02-13T09:31:38.471-08:00It is useful to look at narrative vs. facts.
The ...It is useful to look at narrative vs. facts.<br /><br />The problem emerges most strikingly when the facts don't fit the media/academia/entertainment/bureaucratic narrative about how the world works. That's how we get Deplorables. That's how we got analysis of the Election Day returns. That's how we get Brexit people being "small-minded." Repeat, repeat, repeat until it's unchallenged. Not true -- but unchallenged.<br /><br />The media abandoned facts long ago when they began to sift facts through their biases and worldview. For them, everything is scale: big, bigger, biggest. Therefore, it is easier to cover what goes on in Washington. And given D.C.'s voting history, there is a definite narrative to how the world works.<br /><br />Sam L.: I like ctrl-left<br /><br />David Foster: You are correct. Predictive modeling and simulations of mindbogglingly-complex systems like climate will never be accurate. Scent proclaimed a "butterfly effect" in chaos theory decades ago, but we're still stuck talking about climate like it's a static system. And they use all the weather events to bolster their Climate Change case, but then tell us "Weather is not climate." Then they chant "Science says..." and move onto telling us we're one step closer to destroying the planet.<br /><br />The problem we face is narrative. Most all the narrative-producing industries (media, new reporters, actors, lyricists, teachers, professors, etc.) believe in an identical narrative. That's a powerful coalition to repeat the same thing over and over until the majority of people believe it. <br /><br />The trick to distinguishing narrative is to look ahead to how the story ends, or who wins. With the current cast of characters, it's always government. Government just gets bigger and bigger. Ctrl-Left, indeed.Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-22298200530399390442017-02-13T09:14:21.194-08:002017-02-13T09:14:21.194-08:00"Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said that, whil..."Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said that, while today’s weather is a fact, tomorrow’s weather is a hypothesis—to be verified or falsified by empirical data."<br /><br />Yet the position of the moon at 1300 GMT on February 20 of 2154 is very close to being a fact. Some simulations do model reality so closely that they can be granted a very high believability status.<br /><br />The problem is that too many people fail to distinguish among the levels of trust that should be assigned to different *kinds* of simulation, preferring to wave their hands and talk about "science."David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-29235096632681425182017-02-13T09:10:26.968-08:002017-02-13T09:10:26.968-08:00"If people know more facts they can think mor..."If people know more facts they can think more rationally. More rational thinking means less emotion. We are happy to welcome progressives to the club." Perhaps they can think more rationally, but they will refuse to do so.<br /><br />"Of course, the criminal justice system is organized to prevent prosecutors from suppressing inconvenient facts. Scientific research requires the presentation of all the facts, not just those that appear to prove a certain ideal." And yet, that happens with some prosecutors.<br /><br />"The alt-left has been hard at work trying to undermine our confidence in the facts. They want us to ignore the facts, to refuse to let the facts or the results obtained by an experiment or by the market influence our judgment. This is the first step toward mind control." I've recently seen "ctrl-left" used instead of "alt-left", and think it a much more apt descriptor.<br /><br />"...Trump’s allergy was causing him to attack a media “whose job it is to report accurately and to hold politicians to account for the things they say and do — goals that are anathema to a huckster.” Well, it IS supposed to be the media's job, and that ISN'T what they are doing.<br /><br />Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.com