What are these grand fallacies?
Major mistakes that only an expert will make, in their own field of expertise.

Scientists who deny climate change.

Divine Angel said:

Scientists who deny climate change.

I think that would need to be climate scientists who deny climate change, wouldn’t it?

buffy said:

Divine Angel said:

Scientists who deny climate change.

I think that would need to be climate scientists who deny climate change, wouldn’t it?

Need to generalise that. I know of cosmologists who have denied the Big Bang, an evolutionary scientist who denied the theory of natural selection, a geologist who denied plate tectonics.

mollwollfumble said:

What are these grand fallacies?
Major mistakes that only an expert will make, in their own field of expertise.

General Relativity
Quantum Mechanics
Big Bang Theory

To name but 3.

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

What are these grand fallacies?
Major mistakes that only an expert will make, in their own field of expertise.

General Relativity
Quantum Mechanics
Big Bang Theory

To name but 3.

Show working:

• What are these grand fallacies?

Like when I promise to give you a thousand bucks, but don’t…

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

What are these grand fallacies?
Major mistakes that only an expert will make, in their own field of expertise.

General Relativity
Quantum Mechanics
Big Bang Theory

To name but 3.

Show working:

OK

The three listed theories give inconsistent results.
Therefore at least 2 of them are wrong.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

General Relativity
Quantum Mechanics
Big Bang Theory

To name but 3.

Show working:

OK

The three listed theories give inconsistent results.
Therefore at least 2 of them are wrong.

Let’s generalise that.
Mathematics.
All mathematics is wrong because of Godel’s theorem.
“The three listed theories give inconsistent results” is a direct corollary of Godel’s theorem.

What are these grand fallacies?

The modelling fallacies:

• Mathematical modelling works
• Physical modelling works
• The truth is when computer modelling matches physical modelling

Grand fallacies for experts.

• I’m an expert and I tried to do it and failed – so it can’t be done.
• He’s the world expert so everything he says is true.
• I’m an expert and I know the best way to do it – so I reject any other way to do it.
• Knowing how to do it is the same as doing it.
• That looks about right.
• It’s all been done before.
• Once convinced of a hypothesis, all contrary evidence must be rejected.

Other grand fallacies based on Paranoia, not just for experts.

• Never try anything new, if you do and fail then you could be sued.
• “The sky is falling!”, Chicken Little / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny
• Always attack your competitors.

An expert is a person who knows everything about nothing.
It only takes a single lucky accident to become a world expert.
He who writes the paper is acclaimed the expert, not she who did the work.

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Show working:

OK

The three listed theories give inconsistent results.
Therefore at least 2 of them are wrong.

Let’s generalise that.
Mathematics.
All mathematics is wrong because of Godel’s theorem.
“The three listed theories give inconsistent results” is a direct corollary of Godel’s theorem.

What are these grand fallacies?

The modelling fallacies:

• Mathematical modelling works
• Physical modelling works
• The truth is when computer modelling matches physical modelling

Grand fallacies for experts.

• I’m an expert and I tried to do it and failed – so it can’t be done.
• He’s the world expert so everything he says is true.
• I’m an expert and I know the best way to do it – so I reject any other way to do it.
• Knowing how to do it is the same as doing it.
• That looks about right.
• It’s all been done before.
• Once convinced of a hypothesis, all contrary evidence must be rejected.

Other grand fallacies based on Paranoia, not just for experts.

• Never try anything new, if you do and fail then you could be sued.
• “The sky is falling!”, Chicken Little / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny
• Always attack your competitors.

An expert is a person who knows everything about nothing.
It only takes a single lucky accident to become a world expert.
He who writes the paper is acclaimed the expert, not she who did the work.

Nice post.

Which doesn’t mean I agree with all of it :)

I really should read Godel Escher Bach again.

I think it’s the only book I’ve ever bought two copies of.

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

OK

The three listed theories give inconsistent results.
Therefore at least 2 of them are wrong.

Let’s generalise that.
Mathematics.
All mathematics is wrong because of Godel’s theorem.
“The three listed theories give inconsistent results” is a direct corollary of Godel’s theorem.

What are these grand fallacies?

The modelling fallacies:

• Mathematical modelling works
• Physical modelling works
• The truth is when computer modelling matches physical modelling

Grand fallacies for experts.

• I’m an expert and I tried to do it and failed – so it can’t be done.
• He’s the world expert so everything he says is true.
• I’m an expert and I know the best way to do it – so I reject any other way to do it.
• Knowing how to do it is the same as doing it.
• That looks about right.
• It’s all been done before.
• Once convinced of a hypothesis, all contrary evidence must be rejected.

Other grand fallacies based on Paranoia, not just for experts.

• Never try anything new, if you do and fail then you could be sued.
• “The sky is falling!”, Chicken Little / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny
• Always attack your competitors.

An expert is a person who knows everything about nothing.
It only takes a single lucky accident to become a world expert.
He who writes the paper is acclaimed the expert, not she who did the work.

Nice post.

Which doesn’t mean I agree with all of it :)

I really should read Godel Escher Bach again.

I think it’s the only book I’ve ever bought two copies of.

Two copies. Wow. :-)

Three more things I need to say.
1. Talking of deniers, Feynman was a quark denier. Never believed in quarks.
2. Experts concentrate so much on the details that they forget the obvious.
3. Something else.

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

Let’s generalise that.
Mathematics.
All mathematics is wrong because of Godel’s theorem.
“The three listed theories give inconsistent results” is a direct corollary of Godel’s theorem.

What are these grand fallacies?

The modelling fallacies:

• Mathematical modelling works
• Physical modelling works
• The truth is when computer modelling matches physical modelling

Grand fallacies for experts.

• I’m an expert and I tried to do it and failed – so it can’t be done.
• He’s the world expert so everything he says is true.
• I’m an expert and I know the best way to do it – so I reject any other way to do it.
• Knowing how to do it is the same as doing it.
• That looks about right.
• It’s all been done before.
• Once convinced of a hypothesis, all contrary evidence must be rejected.

Other grand fallacies based on Paranoia, not just for experts.

• Never try anything new, if you do and fail then you could be sued.
• “The sky is falling!”, Chicken Little / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny
• Always attack your competitors.

An expert is a person who knows everything about nothing.
It only takes a single lucky accident to become a world expert.
He who writes the paper is acclaimed the expert, not she who did the work.

Nice post.

Which doesn’t mean I agree with all of it :)

I really should read Godel Escher Bach again.

I think it’s the only book I’ve ever bought two copies of.

Two copies. Wow. :-)

Three more things I need to say.
1. Talking of deniers, Feynman was a quark denier. Never believed in quarks.
2. Experts concentrate so much on the details that they forget the obvious.
3. Something else.

we think we have 2 copies but we’ve only ever seen one on the shelf at a time

mollwollfumble said:

Three more things I need to say.
1. Talking of deniers, Feynman was a quark denier. Never believed in quarks.
2. Experts concentrate so much on the details that they forget the obvious.
3. Something else.

1. Didn’t know that
2. Except those who concentrate so much on the obvious they forget the details (See Hofstadter’s MU)
3. Me too

SCIENCE said:

we think we have 2 copies but we’ve only ever seen one on the shelf at a time

So what would Mr Schrödinger have to say about that?

Divine Angel said:

Scientists who deny climate change.

Or climate scientists who deny that the doubling of atmospheric CO2 doubles forest growth.