Video below from the "Electric Universe" people commenting on some recent empirical findings of NASA deep space missions.
Looks like another orthodox school within the contemporary academe is under going exposure as a dogma-factory, here the academe of astro-physics.
NASA's IBEX and Voyager 1 missions have shattered all conventional ideas about the heliospheric boundary, the region separating our solar system from interstellar space. In 2009, the IBEX spacecraft created the first all-sky map of the boundary revealing an astonishing ribbon of energetic neutral atoms. According to scientists, it's still a big mystery.
I am sceptical of the electric universe crowd, it is a dubious source of analysis.
ReplyDelete"Looks like another orthodox school within the contemporary academe is under going exposure as a dogma-factory, here the academe of astro-physics."
ReplyDeleteThat is nonsense.
y,
ReplyDeleteLet's see how this part of the academe reacts to this new data vs how the academe of economics has reacted to the new data...
rsp,
I don't understand your point Matt. Science has given us incredibly useful pieces of technology that actually work. And the field of economics has given us, well, practically nothing, nothing good anyways.
ReplyDeleteResistance to new ideas is a human trait, present in all fields but comparing physics to economics is laughable. Economics hasn't progressed anywhere near as far as physics has. Mainstream economists and commentators can't even understand that one person's spending is another's income... Physicists have built worldwide communication systems, and build structures on the nanoscale.
Whether the electric universe is true or not is irrelevant.
That video even has the ibex guy saying new theories would be necessary. Sure the electric universe *could* be correct, but it seems to have all the trappings of cargo cult science, proceed with caution.
Joe I agree with you (I am not an economist, etc..)
ReplyDeleteI'm pointing this out to perhaps contrast (we'll see...) the response of the academe of physics to this new empirical information...
Allegedly Keynes: "When the facts change I change my mind, what do you do sir?" type of thing...
Let's see if the academe "changes their minds...." in this case...
rsp,
Sorry, I guess the sarcasm was lost on me. But science is a human endeavor, with all the quirks that come with it. There is resistance to new ideas and dogma quite often. Just not near to the extent as it is in economics. It seems that the further you get from the hard sciences, the more the quirks show up. imo.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a sad testament to the state of astrophysics if you have to use EU as a source of news. But I'm sure there is much discussion going on among those who are interested in this field. Most space missions have busted many a theory, and Voyager is no exception.
ReplyDeleteright Bob I'm going to try to keep an eye on this to see where it goes...
ReplyDeleteJoe makes a good point that the IBEX guy's initial reaction looked good....
The EU people have conferences and it would be interesting to see if any mainstream people of note would simply attend.... this would be like Mankiw or Krugman or some leading Austrian nut-job attending an MMT conference to seek to learn something....
rsp,