Astronomy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat by analyzing the raw image data of several insanely sensitive cameras, then finding out what the cat looks like, what it looked like right after birth, where it’ll be next year and what its gut microbiome consists of, based on a slight hue of its fur in the infrared spectrum.
Here kitty kitty
Submitted 9 months ago by MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/daed8817-fd22-4817-9973-759731f813c3.jpeg
Comments
superkret@feddit.org 9 months ago
pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
There are certain behaviors of ordinary cats which can only be explained by the presence of “dark cats”.
emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Voids, one might say.
Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Some catronomers suggest that ‘dark cats’ might just be bugs, but we haven’t seen any bugs in the room yet.
JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Lol, all of those are philosophies. Philosophy isn’t separate to science, or theology, of whatever. It’s the bigger group they’re all part of.
F04118F@feddit.nl 9 months ago
The meme’s accurate in that sense. All the others are also in a dark room looking for a black cat.
Hupf@feddit.de 9 months ago
JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
The most useful branches of philosophy are important enough we’ve given them other names like “math” and “science”.
Live_your_lives@lemmy.world 9 months ago
This meme is making these different disciplines answer questions they were never intended to answer. It’s like complaining that a school principal isn’t out there teaching students: that’s not their role and it would be silly to expect them to do otherwise.
Philosophers would ask something like: what is a cat?
Metaphysicians would ask something like: does the cat really exist or is it a figment of our imaginations?
Theologians would ask something like: how do cats fit in to my religion
nadir@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The categories themselves also show his ignorance.
Metaphysics is a sub-discipline of Philosophy.
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 9 months ago
And theology and science stood on philosophy’s shoulders as a means to different ends. It’s almost like the author started at the beginning and selectively broke off little bits to build up a joke, in service of the joke.
The joke didn’t land. That’s cool. It’s not my joke, I’m not offended. But I am mystified by the number of “well akshully…” replies. Had this been intended to be a serious, thorough commentary on various disciplines maybe I could understand the circlejerk around pedantry. But it’s not. It’s a gag based on oversimplification. In a meme community.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
sneekee_snek_17@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I love The Oatmeal, but yeah, this one’s a miss
ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Remember, who made the flashlight for the scientist? The philosopher.
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 9 months ago
I agree with the conclusion of your metaphor but I think that literally “the scientist” invented the flashlight.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
who made the flashlight for the scientist? The philosopher.
You misspelt engineer.
Binette@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Metaphysics isn’t looking for a black cat that isn’t there. It’s assuming that there is a black cat even though there might not be one, because flashlights don’t exist yet.
Mango@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Metaphysics is about how things that don’t exist affect what does exist. Things that don’t exist include law, money, superstition, and belief. Santa clause isn’t real, but everyone acting like he’s real makes for a very real effect.
Metaphysics is telling everyone there’s a black cat so they step more carefully.
Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
What about superstitions about black cats being the reason everyone is looking in the first place?
Binette@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
No but like stuff like Santa and money ins’t part of metaphysics. It’s like an attempt to answer stuff because we don’t have the tools to know certain stuff. God would be metaphysics, but not Santa because we know we made Santa up, but the existence of some supreme being (while not exactly how we portray him) is unable to be unproven or proven
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Engineering is crinkling the treat bag so the cat comes to you.
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Science is more like systematically searching the room while exhaustively documenting all findings to define every place the cat wasn’t, as well as where it was. Then you release the cat and do it several more times. Then you invite your peers to come in the room and try to achieve the same results, comparing their findings with yours, so everyone can have a better chance of finding the cat in future attempts.
Science isn’t easy. It is precise because it is tediously thorough.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
Science isn’t easy.
But, unlike the others, it fucking works.
powerofm@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
But observing the cat with the flashlight fundamentally affects the cat.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The cat both has and hasn’t knocked something breakable off a counter or table before you enter the room.
poplargrove@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Could it be me who doesnt know what metaphysics is? No, a whole sub-field of philosophy is actually useless and none of them see it.
Also hilarious seeing “philosophy” referred to like its a single you can use and not a whole field including everything from ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, etc.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Also hilarious seeing “philosophy” referred to like its a method you can use and not a whole field including everything from ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, epistemology, aesthetics, etc.
well i mean, philosophically, it could be considered a framework to think about things under.
Carrolade@lemmy.world 9 months ago
tbf, being in a dark room with no flashlight will give you lots of undistracted free time to work through complex problems and ideas. The presence of a cat in there with you is largely irrelevant.
FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 9 months ago
If the cat comes over and let’s me pet it then I can think better
Geobloke@lemm.ee 9 months ago
I work in an underground mine and sometimes when I’m waiting for someone to come pick me up, I torn my cap lamp off and sit on a rock. It’s the darkest dark you can imagine. No shadows, no pin pricks of light just your thoughts. All you can hear is the sound of moving air and the occasionally the rock moving.
It’s genuinely peaceful and so so relaxing. Definitely had some philosophical moments down there
z00s@lemmy.world 9 months ago
tips fedora
Taiatari@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
I think religion is represented wrong. It should read :
Being in a dark room looking for a black cat, believing that it is there.
I get where the OP is coming from and many religious people have been loud, vocal and hostile recently but it’s not a core principle of religion to be that way.
qarbone@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Not even religion, theology. There are grifters and scammers in every field but apparently theology is the one where the goal is just to unrepetantly lie.
A very clear bias on display.
needthosepylons@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Meh. Natural sciences and philosophy/methaphisics are quite closer/more intimately linked than you seem to think.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
To quote my former physics teacher:
If you remove maths from physics you’re left with philosophy.
needthosepylons@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I’m not qualified enough to approve or contest this statement, but I know for a /phisicistsfact that there was a time when great mathematicians were also great philosophers and they couldn’t conceive doing one without the other (Leibnitz or Descartes, among many others). Why I changed and exactly how, I don’t know, but I find it interesting.
Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Well duh. They all deal with finding the black cat
Kingsjack123@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
Philosphy literally gave birth to science. Obviously there something more to it. if anything we need something to blance out sciences Obsesion with materialism.
humbletightband@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
The meme is silly but it starts with philosophy directing the science what to do - look for the fucking black cat using all your capabilities.
Religion is also painted correct: if there’s a part of the room that’s lighted with the flashlight with no cats there, we don’t want to ruin our worldview and still believe in the cat in the remaining part of the room.
Kingsjack123@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
Yeah I actually agree with that as a basic underlying concept of what science does, but you have to stop and realize that we have more capabilities than just our ability to sense the physical world around us, hell the irony with science is we actually deal with many meta Concepts while actually performing Science it’s just since they are working with science no one really points them out and explains that literal rationality, reason, and thought are actually used to form meta concepts that we use all the time in order to figure things out in junction with our senses. Meta physics are simply Things we can not touch, but they clearpy have an observable effect, for example im forming a number of associations with in my mind forming a mental model of How philosophy and its essence is clearly at the core of science.
Philosophy is the art of figuring out how things work through meta concepts, a science is the art of figuring out how things work from a physical point of view by using ones senses in combination with Meta concepts, Be it simply tiing with with association, creating a mental mode of a Concept, etc.
You cant really compress These concepts into a Meme doesnt really work as a joke, or a critique. personal taste i supose.
dumbass@leminal.space 9 months ago
What’s the one that’s in a perfectly lit room empty white room, with a decently sized black cat thats covered in up arrows flashing towards it with a loud siren blaring from it and signs saying “the cat you are looking for is right here!”, who still can’t find the cat?
Machinist@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Pseudoscience/conspiracy theories.
qarbone@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The signs are a fakeout for the lizardpeople scooping your thoughtsponge out via economic taxation.
Just gotta do your research and follow the obvious signs. No, but not those obvious signs.
Xanthrax@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Problem: Can a black cat be found in a dark room?
Hypothesis: yes
Variable: flashlight
Control: no flashlight
Findings: v group found the cat, c group didn’t.
Theory: You can find a cat in a dark room using a flashlight.
Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 9 months ago
Scientific literature doesn’t always take on the observation, hypothesis, experiment, conclusion form so strictly. A lot of the time it’s “Thiis is the state of the field so far. Hey look what we found, that’s interesting. Conclusion: somebody should look into this”
Emmie@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Physics is like shooting balls at the cat and registering the sounds
loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
I don’t like this allegory because if the room is perfectly dark the color of the cat doesn’t matter, and if there’s a bit of light its eyes will glow.
ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Philosophy is often more like looking for things that can’t be seen with a flashlight but must logically exist.
Donkter@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Philosophy is determining that there is, probably, a cat in the room. And science is using a flashlight to find it.
Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
Sci-fi is a little more about theorizing science before it gets there. I feel like philosophy is more like: “Why are we looking for the cat?”
It ascribes meaning to the actions that science makes possible. I can find that cat if I use science. But why do I want the cat and what will I do once I have it?
ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
But sometimes philosophy is also like not knowing that flashlights exist and looking for a cat in the dark, sadly.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
philosophy is my single favorite field ever invented.
I fucking love it so much. Some fuckhead somewhere was like “wait, why do things mean things, and what does meaning mean?” and now we have fucking nihilism. Truly an incredible field of scientific discovery.
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 9 months ago
You’re thinking on epistemology, not nihilism.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
that was just the example i picked to make a funny haha.
Zron@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Too bad it peaked 2000 years ago.
I know it’s kind of a meme, but Diogenes was really onto something. Don’t keep what you do not need, how can someone be respected as a person if they depend on servants, a wealthy ruler is no different from a slave once they’ve died, etc.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
it’ll peak once we figure out how the universe was created, and how it relates to the rest of human existence.
redracc@lemmy.world 9 months ago
You are in a pitch-black room and hear a noise. A noise you can’t describe properly, you’ve never heard or seen this creature before but it has a high pitched wail.
A man called Philosophy walks in the room. He hears the cry and takes some time to think. He names this creature the cat and deduces that it must be as big as a bear and as fierce as a lion. This creature must be dangerous. He tells you stories about strange exotic creatures, ones with black fur and long tails. These creatures have nails as sharp as swords and mean only harm. He tells you to stay back and listen to his thoughts as he contemplates more.
Then another man called Theology walks in. He too hears the creature yelling. Over some time, he begins to listen to the different tones of the noise this creature makes. He hears a shriek and thinks it’s telling you to get back. It hears a purr and tells you it’s playful. He begins to think it’s communicating and assigns meaning to the creature’s noise. He tells you to have faith in his belief and to follow the creatures demands. He tells you to offer tithes and sacrifices so you too can find meaning in this creature.
And, finally, a last man named Science walks into the room. He hears the cat and listens to the others propositions. He sets up ways to test his hypotheses. He thinks the cat must be big, so he throws some food near the creature and hears its footsteps; they aren’t stomps, they are something more elegant. He no longer thinks he and Philosophy were correct. Because he thinks it’s no longer big, he walks up to the creature and tries to get a closer look. He gets bitten and falls back to the others. Over time he tells you that Theology and Philosophy were right on some things and wrong on the others. He admits that he can be wrong himself but will correct and change his understand of this creature as he learns. He also offers little answers to the creature’s as the others. You don’t understand exactly how he works, you are merely a layman with little education.
So, which of the men do you believe?
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 9 months ago
We wouldnt be in this mess if the fucking philosopher hadnt come up with it.
h3mlocke@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Stoopid.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 9 months ago
The old Dave Allen joke about this
zloubida@lemmy.world 9 months ago
You obviously didn’t used your flashlight when you searched for philosophy and the others ^^
aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
I think this isn’t perfect, but pretty right.
Top 3 are ego-driven, with expectations. And that attitude is why scientific practices like Buddhism have been subjected to many attempts to make it a religion instead of a practice.
How many times have you heard someone say they believe in science?
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 9 months ago
"any. fuckin’. questions?"
- Jeff Tiedrich
hswolf@lemmy.world 9 months ago
a fucking flashlight you say? how would that help finding a cat?
kaffiene@lemmy.world 9 months ago
One of the painful things about having studied philosophy is experiencing the fact that nearly everyone on the Internet are absolutely sure having read a few paragraphs about the topic makes them an expert.
Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
I think everyone with a niche skill experiences that to some extent. Almost all posts about mathematics on lemmy attract people acting like they understand what’s going on while making wrong claims lol, I only rarely see comments that are fully correct.
kaffiene@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah I expect climate change scientists would roll their eyes pretty hard at my post as well =)
someacnt_@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I don’t think I saw any math related post tbh, other than witty 3! = 6 one
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I hope that one day people can call themselves philosophers without feeling cringey
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
For what it’s worth, as a non-philosopher, I absolutely agree that it’s a field that needs and deserves to be taken far more seriously by far more people.
hoss@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
When I grow up, I want to work at the philosophy factory, making philosophies
PunnyName@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Hey, I’ll have you know that I’ve read TWO paragraphs!
kaffiene@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Shit! We got an expert here! ;-)
moistclump@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Same with studying anything and then seeing it mentioned on the internet.
kaffiene@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Very true
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Yeah, I’m an engineer myself, and even I can see that the take on philosophy here is really unnecessarily disparaging, and doesn’t even really fit well into the joke due to a rather meaningful lack of pertinence.
Ulvain@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
You’re right! I read a few paragraphs about this.
luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
My high-school class on philosophy concerned itself with formal logic (syllogisms, really) and a little ontology, though I have forgotten most of the ontological stuff again. I don’t know just how much there is to know, so I don’t know just how ignorant I am. But where other Internet philosophers pretend to know what they’re talking about, I at least know that I don’t.