Re: Your Communication Problems

Neil W Rickert wrote:
> Rich Townsend <rhdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>>Neil W Rickert wrote:
>
>
>>>That's really a reflection on problems in philosophy of science. We
>>>learned the notion of "prediction" from physics, where you have laws
>>>where time is a key variable. The equations of physics directly lead
>>>to the prediction of future events, because of the role of time as
>>>variable. But there are many scientific laws where time is not a key
>>>variable, and those laws can only make predictions with a different
>>>understanding of the meaning of "predict".
>
>
>>I would disagree with this interpretation. 'Prediction', whether it be
>>in physics or in evolutionary biology, is not restricted to those events
>>occurring in the future. It applies to all relevant phenomena that have
>>not comprised the specific input axioms during the development of one's
>>hypothesis (this restriction serves to rule out trivial circular
>>'proofs'). This is why it remains meaningful to talk about the
>>predictions of ToE or stellar astrophysics, even though both of these
>>endeavours study phenomena that actually occurred long into the past.
>
>
> I'm not sure what you think you are disagreeing with.

I think I was disagreeing with the first part of your paragraph at the
top. Upon reading the rest of the paragraph more carefully, I see that I
misunderstood the thrust of your post -- apologies!

However, I'm not really sure that Ken Shaw and I were disagreeing on the
meaning of 'predict'. It was more that I was asking him to showcase some
of the successes of ToE, but he instead chose to showcase his limited
understanding of atomic physics.

cheers,

Rich

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Your Communication Problems
    ... 'Prediction', whether it be ... >>I'm not sure what you think you are disagreeing with. ... It was more that I was asking him to showcase some ... > understanding of atomic physics. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Undecidability in Physics
    ... are you agreeing with Svozil? ... Turing's remarkable comment suggests that he had given fresh thought to physics since writing the 1948 and 1950 papers. ... it was even argued by Sir Arthur Eddington that on account of the indeterminacy principle in quantum mechanics no such prediction is even theoretically possible.' ... It is unlikely that Turing was being drawn to Penrose's view of quantum mechanics as involving an uncomputable element. ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: Time is a concept
    ... The maximum energy of the ejected electrons is independent of the ... without at all accepting that its ... are few if any scientists in theoretical physics at the moment who are ... prediction, and you'd rather sit and wait for that one to show up. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: The Death of RAB?
    ... I have never complained about heuristics understood as heuristics. ... To do otherwise would impugn the Aristotelian foundations of physics, without which the Newtonian breakthrough would not have taken place. ... to go out and eat a hamburger in response to someone's prediction ... fish sandwiches, so *I predict you will order a fish sandwich* ...
    (rec.arts.books)
  • Re: Aether - a few idea to define it
    ... physics than yours. ... the more momenta is required to trigger the event. ... lifetime prediction, so that it can be tested independently? ... change would likely to be too slight ...
    (sci.physics)