String Theory, Voodoo and Economics

[Ophiolite]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

 

[Everybodyknows]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

Why would you do that? Voodoo has way more evidence backing it up than the others.

 

[Ophiolite]

Yes, even as I posted the thread I thought I was giving voodoo a bit of a raw detail. It has several benefits:

• Creates a community spirit
• Valuable as a way of passing the time in locations devoid of the internet and TV
• Definitely effective through a reverse-placebo effect

 

[Anguspure]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

So String theory is highly theoretical physics bordering on the metaphysical.
Voodoo is a spiritual(metaphysical) practice that is founded on African spiritualism brought into a semi RC understanding and then back into the Central American community.
...and Economics is a study of something like the Butterfly effect for a million Butterflys, yes complex but in theory, at least, able to be figured out (although I have little faith).
So I can't see a real link here, I like a good puzzle but would appreciate a clue.

 

[Ophiolite]

So String theory is highly theoretical physics bordering on the metaphysical.
Voodoo is a spiritual(metaphysical) practice that is founded on African spiritualism brought into a semi RC understanding and then back into the Central American community.
...and Economics is a study of something like the Butterfly effect for a million Butterflys, yes complex but in theory, at least, able to be figured out (although I have little faith).
So I can't see a real link here, I like a good puzzle but would appreciate a clue.

Well, this is really just a lighthearted thread, but at the core of many jokes there is often something of fundamental significance. I'll leave it to others to decide if that is true here.

String theory is asserted by some not to be true science. I've referred to it elsewhere as mental masturbation for mathematicians. An intellectual exercise with no grounding in reality and (currently) no way of testing it.

After any economic event (good or bad) one can find economists who predicted it based on "fundamentals". Whether this is because there are just too many variables, or because techniques have not advanced sufficiently, is incidental - economics as a predictive tool, fails.

I then needed a third item for contrast and comparison that is generally recognised as pseudoscience. Voodoo fits the bill and has the additional advantage of being inherently more amusing than say astrology.

 

[Anguspure]

Well, this is really just a lighthearted thread, but at the core of many jokes there is often something of fundamental significance. I'll leave it to others to decide if that is true here.

String theory is asserted by some not to be true science. I've referred to it elsewhere as mental masturbation for mathematicians. An intellectual exercise with no grounding in reality and (currently) no way of testing it.

After any economic event (good or bad) one can find economists who predicted it based on "fundamentals". Whether this is because there are just too many variables, or because techniques have not advanced sufficiently, is incidental - economics as a predictive tool, fails.

I then needed a third item for contrast and comparison that is generally recognised as pseudoscience. Voodoo fits the bill and has the additional advantage of being inherently more amusing than say astrology.

A LOL. Thanks for your humour I needed that.

 

[Ophiolite]

A LOL. Thanks for your humour I needed that.

My pleasure. It's always comforting to know there are others with a similar perspective on some aspects of the world.

 

[Everybodyknows]

String theory is asserted by some not to be true science. I've referred to it elsewhere as mental masturbation for mathematicians. An intellectual exercise with no grounding in reality and (currently) no way of testing it.

Isn't a lot of mathematics like that (no way of testing it)? When mathematics relates to reality it becomes science.

 

[AV1611VET]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

Did you mean Economics or Evolution?

QV: 10

 

[Ophiolite]

Isn't a lot of mathematics like that (no way of testing it)? When mathematics relates to reality it becomes science.

Yes, but mathematics does not make any claims to be science. It is a separate discipline, in parts practical, in part theoretical.

Within mathematics concepts can be proven. In science ideas (theories) are either corroborated or refuted, never proven.

But String Theory claims to be science. I am very open to correction, but I understand that no practical falsifiable observation or experiment has yet been proposed for SS. That alone renders it unscientific. (The foregoing sentence is intended to provoke supporters of SS to come forward with an instance of falsifiability, since I am too lazy to check Google Scholar on this point again.)

 

[essentialsaltes]

String theory has a certain elegance, but I was never seduced by it. It remains a useful exercise, in the hopes that something useful will come out of it. The same could be said for economics. Voodoo has already given the world the zombie, so it is ahead.

 

[Michael]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

It's even more fun when you combine them. Voodoo economics has been around since the Reagan years, and Trump's new tax plan shows that it's alive and well.

FYI, when you combine them, the combo *might* be "testable" to some degree as we can see the results of that particular tax plan in form of our huge budget deficits, and massive debt. Apparently however the concept is ultimately unfalsifiable because a couple of decades of failure tends to be forgotten and ignored by the next generation.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

I tend to put String Theory, Voodoo and Economics in the same category and it's not a very positive one. Discuss.

It sounds like rather thoughtless or careless thing to say. Without further elaboration, it only suggests the speaker thinks negatively of them.

String Theory is, in my view, much maligned; it wasn't just conjured out of thin air, but was born out of curiosity, when the depths of mathematical descriptions of one field of theoretical physics were unexpectedly found to contain formulae from an apparently unrelated field. Who wouldn't be curious to find out more? And although it hasn't (yet?) shown itself to be a useful physical description of the world, as it has developed through various incarnations, it has kept on throwing up hints of deep connections between other theories, and the mathematical tools developed to explore it have found useful application in other fields. You never know what may be around the corner unless you explore interesting trails, and even if you finally reach a dead-end, you may see unexpected views and find interesting things along the way. There's a very readable site devoted to it: Why String Theory?

Voodoo is a religious cult based on magic, ritual, possession, death, and the undead; so understandably negative connotations.

Economics has been, until recently, mostly barking up the wrong tree, by treating the key elements of its models - people - as rational, self-interested actors. Now they have finally accepted that this is not how people actually behave (especially investors!), the field shows a great deal of promise and potential.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

... I understand that no practical falsifiable observation or experiment has yet been proposed for SS. That alone renders it unscientific. (The foregoing sentence is intended to provoke supporters of SS to come forward with an instance of falsifiability, since I am too lazy to check Google Scholar on this point again.)

Not strictly true - most, if not all, variants depend on Supersymmetry (SUSY), which means the Standard Model particles should all have more massive siblings (superparticles). At the lower end of their predicted energy ranges these are detectable by the LHC (none found so far), but the range does extend beyond current capabilities (with decreasing likelihood). It also makes some other potentially testable predictions.

 

[Michael]

Not strictly true - most, if not all, variants depend on Supersymmetry (SUSY), which means the Standard Model particles should all have more massive siblings (superparticles). At the lower end of their predicted energy ranges these are detectable by the LHC (none found so far), but the range does extend beyond current capabilities (with decreasing likelihood). It also makes some other potentially testable predictions.

What good are those tests if you refuse to take 'no' for answer?

 

[Michael]

Within mathematics concepts can be proven. In science ideas (theories) are either corroborated or refuted, never proven.

Tell that to astronomers:

[astro-ph/0608407] A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter

 

[HopeInJesusOnly]

If no one ever really dies, then the afterlife is another realm, or another plane, or in another dimension. See what I did there?

Someone once really upset me at work, telling me that I was following a zombie (he was referring to Jesus). I was aggravated for weeks....and months later I was lost.

You can draw dotted lines everywhere. That's the problem...or the solution, depending on what you believe.