Re: NYT (Op-Ed) on Multiverse Theory

From: uv <jv.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 02:51:07 +0100

Bruno said

> > Whoa there. 80% of Americans (or something) believe the world
> >was created by some bearded guy
> >in six days.

> "monkey see, monkey do". Nice expression.
> With a population of monkeys, you get something like a bose condensation,
> capable of transforming a democracy into a one party country where
> everyone (almost) think in the same direction.
> That's what is happening in France and Belgium, today ...
> Quite depressing ...
>
> Bruno
>
>

Now the problem is that you have the possibility of such effects occurring
at various levels and being relevant to scientific work on some of them
only.

I give four rough categories and do not claim other than pro tem
practical (not metaphysical) justification for them.

      1.Crowd psychology. (as can apply and be applied mathematically in
stock market shifts and pressures, etc.). Market surveys, neural network
stock studies, Lewin, Leeper, Wertheimer etc but ultimately shading into
category 4. at least for the three names just mentioned.

       2. Religion. It could be God, (ones own or someone else's - (partly
covered by 4)) etc.etc.

       3. Statistical "luck". May cover anthropic-type arguments,
approaches like that of Rees (astro-ph/0101268) etc. etc. May also
lead to rational and semi-rational arguments about Newcomb paradox,
Monty Hall style arguments etc.

       4. Psychiatry. Already much used by police in forensics trying to
pinpoint crimes, and more generally to predict reactions of people
individually and en bloc, as I pointed out in this forum on the 16th.
('monkey see, monkey do'). Often used for monkeys, people with damaged
minds etc. but can clearly find other uses, such as perhaps the public
of a whole country. (Stanley Milgram's famous studies are probably
mainly more 1 than 4, but since the categories are for classification
only that probably hardly matters).

But these are just a few of the options and as I pointed out, what seems to
work at least in a limited way is brain physics (approach 4), and this has
the virtue that quite basic and variable ideas can be tried, tested and
improved on or disgarded. And most importantly it remains for the most
part as science and not conjecture or simply educated guessing.

I daresay marketing managers or science fiction film screenplay writers
might prefer a different approach. They would likely want to use
spindoctors or image consultants etc.(roughly approach 1 with some 3).
Received on Fri Apr 18 2003 - 21:55:30 PDT