User talk:Ancheta Wis/b
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Hedgehog signalling maintains the optic stalk-retinal interface through the regulation of Vax gene activity
SMAD3 or Mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 3
+: S×S → S
The article shows a march of ideas, grounded in constraints such as truth, validity, reproducibility etc. and a lessening of the need to exalt one concept over another, except perhaps for our own attention and other resources. Might this be an explicit entry for part of the article. Deduction only yields to Deduction or Induction; Jevon's Plausibility of a Conjecture becomes a defensible effort rather than a waste of time; Evidence becomes just as important as Authority. Should we also include Wittgenstein's concept of the usefulness of Contradiction and Turing's rejection of that discussion? Would that not also allow the entrance into the speculative sciences, to use Roger Bacon's terminology.
These questions may be more appropriate for a philosophical article; in that case we could ignore them; would that be appropriate for a history article? In Max Born, Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance, Born points out that Cause and Effect can be analyzed no further than that of a mathematical function. Thus he removes them as things to be found like mountains in terra incognita. This removes considerations such as 'First Movers' etc. and considerably simplifies discussions.
Ernst Mach makes a similar point about scientific law; our laws are psychologically dependent, like Occam's Razor. It helps us to simplify and otherwise transform the subjects of discussion, in order to manipulate their properties, and perhaps understand them better. Thus the laws of physics are simple, but the complication lies in the specification of the boundary conditions of the models.
In the twentieth century, statistics and computers came into their own, and we need no longer find only analytic solutions to mathematical functions, instead other techniques such as simulation by the Monte Carlo method were used to build things like bombs, etc.
On another philosophical point, Isaac Newton formulated laws of nature with forces to which we and Nature are subject. This is framed exactly like Roman law in which law started out as sacred mystery, to be passed in secret from father (patriarch) to son (but with a bow to vengance as a motivation for punishing transgressors of law). Then the plebeians demanded equal access to the law and their publication in the Twelve Tables. (Sounds like Wikipedia from 2200 years ago, doesn't it.) The analogy appears to be the personal dependence of scientific method on who is performing the steps. This concept is stated explicitly in the scientific method article itself, as well as the caution that scientific method is not a recipe and requires ingenuity and imagination. What is left unsaid is that it takes a special person to practice scientific method. Is this obvious to those reading a history? Does history take special people only? Is the historical fact that scientists have shown high moral development as well as the ability to maintain a neutral/ objective POV? Might this be myth? Is it possible for scientists to demonstrate that they only are able to practice scientific method? Might that be a litmus test?
There is a parallel situation in mathematics; it takes a mathematician to construct a mathematical proof, although a proof ought to be accessible to non-mathematicians. We do not yet understand how to make ingenuity and understanding methodical enough to satisfy Francis Bacon's dream of a better method. --Ancheta Wis 17:23, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
scholasticism Divine right and Roman law Roman law Oersted We need a community here. Failing that someone might just post this on Craigslist.org: "Wanted: nobel-level leader and expert in physics to devote countless hours on Free stuff. Wikiproject stalled for lack of community." or take it to the community for comment or maybe The Onion. Come on. --1 February 2007 (UTC)
What about setting a timer. After one week, one month, one year, 10 years, 100 years, ... declare the project dead. Draw a Black outline around the article/wip: "This effort is archived for historical purposes only. Please do not modify it." Then forbid any efforts to try again. 09:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
This discussion is evidence that the page/wip is dead for want of moderation. That this page not be a total loss, you (the reader) might try the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Benvenuto Cellini was an extremely talented man of the Renaissance who had the ill-fortune to create works which were in high demand, and who was forced to defend himself, to put it charitably (he had to kill people who wanted to steal from him). I first learned of him through music: Benvenuto Cellini (opera). -- 1 February 2007 (UTC)
- This is OR. I suggest finding a venue like WikInfo where your POV will survive. "Wikinfo accepts and encourages original research." The next problem will be to find others who agree with you, and who will then propagate your ideas in the future. It's kind of too bad that Platonism is baked-in to your POV.
- Gauss once stated that his work came through systematic, palpaple experimentation (I can't find the location where I saw this quote, unfortunately).
- The categorical statement "theory is developed from data, not a wild brainstorm" also does not fit how many people think, including Albert Einstein. Where might data come from, in your scheme. Re-read the Heisenberg paraphrase of Einstein's comments on observation.
- Mathematics doesn't come for free, especially the part about observing the logical steps in a proof. It takes mathematicians to do mathematics. Witness the Andrew Wiles proof of Fermat's Last Theorem; it took someone to say "I'm sorry, I can't understand step xxx" to Wiles. Fermat's Last Theorem continued to stump the entire world until Wiles had a brainstorm to save his proof.
- Based upon the history of this article, involving hundreds of editors performing thousands of edits, I would be wary of the rocks hiding under the surface of the waters of your proposed voyage.
11:04, 29 January 2007 (UTC)