cynar
@cynar@lemmy.world
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Because statistics is a relative unknown to many people. Until people have a good grounding in statistics then they often have to rely on an appeal to authority.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
In reality, statistics should be trusted based on source, method and importance.
A survey of preferred ice-cream flavours by an ice-cream company can be trusted easily, even if the wording and method are a bit loose. An analysis of a potentially billion dollar drug requires FAR more scrutiny, even from multiple reliable sources. Between these 2 extremes is a spectrum of trust.
Unfortunately, most people don’t do well with shades of grey. If some statistics can’t be trusted, then none can. It’s all false news (until it happens to agree with their preconceived views).
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Even a small amount of statistic abuse will break blind trust in them. Once that trust is gone, some people will reject all of them, rather than try and differentiate.
Low grade abuse of statistics and related methods is rampant in low grade media.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
There are levels of abuse, some blatant, some subtle. Leading questions are obvious, when you have the question asked. Publishing bias is difficult to spot, even for trained scientists looking for it.
Learning about statistical methods isn’t enough. People need to be taught how to weigh the data presented against the value of misleading them.
It’s a subsection of logical reasoning, and needs to be taught as part of an integrated whole.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Part of the problem is that statistics can be abused. It takes a reasonable amount of training to be able to differentiate between reliable statistics and potentially dodgy. Even worse, we are often presented with them, striped or context.
The best solution is to teach people how to both spot problems and seek reliable data. The proper meaning of “do your own research”. Unfortunately, a significant chunk just give up with them and only trust their gut.
- Comment on i somsone who isn’t dyslexic lexic? 1 week ago:
The dys effectively means disorder of. Lexic reading and writing ability. It’s a disorder of reading.
In the same family you have some others. Dyscalcula is a disorder of maths ability. Dyspraxia is a disorder of motor control.
Science likes Latin based words. Because it’s a dead language, the meanings don’t change/drift. Most scientific language can be deconstructed this way.
- Comment on Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have 1 week ago:
His various books explored the pros and cons of various government styles in a fairly honest way. Unfortunately, modern films don’t do well with nuances. It’s fascism on the surface, but there are echoes of the deep cracks that make it so terrifying and self destructive.
- Comment on Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have 1 week ago:
I viewed the movie as a play on the propaganda within the universe of the book (roughly the equivalent of films like “black hawk down”).
A movie playing it straight could be interesting. My only concern is how it will resonate with the current political situation. The original book was far more subtle in its view on fascism. It could easily turn into a fascist call to arms.
- Comment on How can a military buy fighter jets that the seller has kill switches for? 2 weeks ago:
The game changer will be swarm capable drones.
A few smart drones can be used to guide a swarm of cheaper drones on target. Additional sensor drones can feed back info to improve this.
Currently, defensive systems can cope with a drone attack. However, if you have 20 coming in from all directions, in perfect coordination, they will be overwhelmed. You don’t even need all of them to be armed, just a couple, protected by the rest.
Current drone usage is akin to the first tanks in WWI. The WWII equivalent will be terrifying.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 2 weeks ago:
More than I see very few of them anymore. I see more of them when I look in the junk mail, but even hotmail has gotten good a filtering out all the crap.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 2 weeks ago:
Does it however? I’m not up to speed on modern anti spam, but a huge number of spelling mistakes screams spam to me. I would be extremely surprised if it wasn’t the case. The best way to deliver spam is to make it indistinguishable from legit messages.
Also, the existence of spear fishing implies it’s a choice.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 2 weeks ago:
No evidence that we have. The spammers obviously think it’s worth doing however, and they are the ones that would have the statistics.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 2 weeks ago:
The initial fishing is a low effort, wide net. What follows actually takes the investment of man hours and/or other resources. They would rather get 1 catch they can take all the way, than 500 where 495 will figure it out later and bail.
- Comment on Delightfully so 3 weeks ago:
The film hot fuzz has an amazing take on this. They need to talk to a farmer, but end up bringing the dog handler along. It turns out it’s not for the dog. It takes 2 accent translations to make sense of what he is saying!
- Comment on Delightfully so 3 weeks ago:
I had a Welsh work colleague years ago. A few times he was on the phone and spoke Welsh. None of the mental markers on what language he was speaking seemed to change. It sounded like English, spoken with a Welsh accent. Until my brain tried to interpret it. It was like I had had a stroke. It parsed as English, but wouldn’t make sense. It took a conscious effort to remind myself that he wasn’t speaking English.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
What is a particle, what is a wave? QM entities are neither. They are a 3rd thing. A quantised wave is the term my university professor used as a short hand. The nature of that wave is described by the Schroeder equation + its constraints. Certain interactions will bound it heavily, and so make it look particle like, others emphasise the wavelike properties.
You require the maths to actually do anything useful with it, but not to get the basic concepts. It’s no different to the rest of physics, in that. E.g. you can understand the concepts of orbital mechanics, without being able to calculate them.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
While I’m rusty as hell, my physics degree was actually focused quite a lot into QM.
It’s perfectly possible to get a reasonable understanding of what’s going on without going head first into the maths. There are definitely areas however that we don’t have a good conceptual model of yet. For those, the maths definitely leads the way. 90% of QM is comprehendible with relatively little maths. You only need the maths when you start to get predictive.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
QM entities are quantised waves. You can make a wave look very close to a particle quite easily, a particle can never behave like a wave.
Dumping the mental short hand of particle interactions is one of the main reasons most people can’t get their heads around it.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
So why are you so upset with us trying to fix it?
I personally find the anti science, anti learning crowd has gone from amusing, to annoying, to terrifying.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
I disagree with it being hard to comprehend. The maths is an absolute bitch, but the basic premise is fairly simple. Everything is (quantised) waves. The rest clicks, once you get your brain to accept this. Everything else is a consequence. Those consequences can lead you down deep dark tunnels, filled with evil maths and mind bending results, but the basic idea is simple.
I have a bit of an issue with memes that are actively misleading.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
That is part of what bugs me.
Quantum mechanics isn’t magical or unknowable. It’s just an area of physics where some of our base assumptions/approximations break down. It’s not even that hard to wrap your head around, it just seems most people don’t want to try.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
So was “Donald Trump for president” and look at the damage that has caused.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
Perception and observation are different things. Air molecules can be “observers” when looking at electrons etc.
- Comment on Observer 4 weeks ago:
This sort of comic always bugs me. Observation in QM is not the same as observation in layman terms.
Best think of it as hit it and watch the pieces fly. When you get small enough, you can’t approximate out the impacts. It’s akin to studying road traffic by sending an overloaded freight truck the wrong way and counting tires that hit the verge. It might also affect the current traffic’s motion.
- Comment on Amazon's previous VP of Prime Gaming said they "tried everything" to disrupt Steam 5 weeks ago:
It’s more than just pushing for support. They have made a lot of windows only games just work on Linux.
They’ve changed it from “need to release and support Linux” to “zero effort other than not actively fuck up the compatibility layer”. In user land, it’s the same thing. For developers it’s a vast difference.
- Comment on Entropy? Never heard of it. 5 weeks ago:
You also need to sustain 5 atm, with no leaks for years. Where is it being stored, and who’s paying for the maintenance? All it would take would be a bit of civil unrest, or corruption, and the work could be undone in mass.
- Comment on I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this? 5 weeks ago:
It’s mostly a non issue in my group. Our ages run from late teens to OAP. I often don’t even notice ages. I just talk to them as a person with a shared interest.
It does help that at least half of us are neurodiverse. Most awkwardness doesn’t even get noticed by either side. Enthusiasm covers a lot of sins!
I mostly judge people by skill level in the subject. If they are knowledgeable, I’m happy to pick their brain for info. It doesn’t matter if they are 20 years older or younger. Conversely, if they are new, I try and share the lessons and tricks I’ve picked up.
- Comment on I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this? 5 weeks ago:
I’ve seen this more than a few times, as well as felt it myself. It’s a particular form of situational depression.
In short, the solution is to “find your tribe”.
Your problem is 2 fold.
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Humans are a social animal. We need a group to socialise with, to be stable and happy. The requirements vary, but it’s almost always non-zero. The lack of meaningful contact sends us into a downward spiral.
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99% of people are boring to you. This is actually completely fine and reasonable. Unfortunately the 1% that aren’t boring to you tend to be hard to find. Even worse, weirder people tend to mask. They pretend to be normal and boring to fit in.
The goal, therefore, is to find what 1% you need and where they congregate, with their masks down. They are out there, you just need to find them. You do this by trying new hobbies and activities. Most won’t hit the mark, but some will resonate with you. It’s OK to try a lot of things before you find it.
For me, it was a makerspace. I actually ended up founding one, since there wasn’t one locally. I’ve seen a number of other people come along and discover there really is a group of weirdos that they fit into that aren’t boring. They, in turn, add their brand of weirdness to the group and make it better for all involved.
Without knowing more about you, I can’t point you in the right direction. I can say they are out there. You just need to find them.
Go find your tribe.
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- Comment on Entropy? Never heard of it. 5 weeks ago:
It would, but it takes more energy that gets produced total. You’re spending 300wKh to make 220kWh of electricity.
- Comment on Entropy? Never heard of it. 5 weeks ago:
And how do you plan to keep it liquefied, on a large scale, for 100s of years? It’s currently done using pressure vessels amd chillers, that require maintenance etc.