[FRIAM] Book publishing advice needed

[Gary Schiltz]

Eric Charles> "But to return to my point, the question is still open: When
grasping for something with which to fake adding-depth to their writing,
why do people so often grasp at physics?"

My take as a layman, i.e. not a physicist: Most people think of "physics"
> in terms of Newtonian physics, which is both intuitive and easily
> measurable and repeatable. Physics at the quantum level is both
> non-intuitive and very difficult to do experiments on, but that's mostly
> irrelevant to the layperson destined to work in non-physics scientific
> fields anyway. Even biology (at least above the cellular and simple
> organism level) is difficult to quantify (e.g. behavior of organisms,
> communities, ecosystems) and often impractical/unethical to provide
> controls for. So the biologist, the evolutionary ecologist, the
> psychologist, the medical researcher... may all *wish* their fields were as
> easy to experiment with as the good old fashioned Newtonian physics domains
> they learned about in Physics 101.


On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 8:19 AM Eric Charles <eric.phillip.charles at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Glen,
> I've definitely read and processed your prior posts.
>
> The reality of a someone else's situation does not limit whether or not a
> third party can be envious, or jealous, or any of those other related
> concepts. You can be envious of someone's wonderful life, even when that
> other person's life is absolutely horrible.
>
> But to return to my point, the question is still open: When grasping for
> something with which to fake adding-depth to their writing, why do people
> so often grasp at physics? If we agree that "envy" is the wrong term, what
> is closer? What do you call the relationship between person A and person B,
> in which person A thinks person B is in inherent possession of something
> they need, so much that they are willing to play dress ups with a shoddy
> version of person B's schtick?
>
> Like, I get that a child who puts on their Spiderman underoos before they
> go into surgery is probably not perfectly described as being "envious" of
> Spiderman's bravery... but that's not too far off... and I'm not sure what
> the better term would be. He didn't pick a random set of underwear, he
> didn't pick Scooby Do underwear, even if he loves Scooby and Spidey evenly.
> The kid reaches for Spiderman because (from his point of view) Spiderman
> has something that the kid thinks he needs in that moment. And he'll tell
> others too, because then others will know that he has what he needs,
> because (from his point of view) others will understand that an association
> with Spiderman bolsters him.
>
> And yes, most (but certainly not all) of the time I see people reach for
> physics, in a situation where they are not trying to do physics, but trying
> to use physics to bolster some totally unrelated stuff they are working on,
> it seems like some intellectual-elitist version of being earnestly told
> that everything is going to turn out alright, because they are wearing
> Spiderman underoos.
>
> -----------
> Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
> Department of Justice - Personnel Psychologist
> American University - Adjunct Instructor
> <echarles at american.edu>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 10:49 PM ∄ uǝlƃ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, "physics envy" is VERY far off. 1) As I tried to claim before,
>> physicists don't speak with authority in that way. The way these people
>> speak is very different from the way physicists speak. 2) While Firestein
>> knows some physics, my graphic artist friend has NO idea what quantum
>> mechanics actually is, probably doesn't even know classical mechanics. So,
>> even if they're envious of something, it's neither physicists' ways of
>> being, nor the physics that physicists do.
>>
>> But I'd go even further that they're not *envious* of anything. What they
>> want is something, anything, to justify their rhetoric, which is basically
>> that there's stuff we don't know (explicitly in Firestein's book on
>> "Ignorance" and implicitly in my friend's claim that a good attitude
>> mysteriously helps one recover from cancer). That's not envy. It's
>> justificationism.
>>
>> Now, when Nick and Frank talk about psychologists having physics envy
>> (neither Firestein nor my friend fit that bill), *envy* does seem to come
>> close. But I'd argue the same way with (1) and (2) above. They're not
>> envious of physicists or physics. But they might be envious of ready access
>> to plentiful DATA. And you can get that from some types of biology. In any
>> case, that's not what I was talking about when I complained about everyone
>> pulling woowoo quantum mechanics out of their hat everytime they want to
>> say something about stuff we don't know.
>>
>> Many people accused Penrose of the same thing, conflating quantum theory
>> with consciousness merely BECAUSE they're both mysterious. And I sincerely
>> doubt Penrose has "physics envy".
>>
>>
>> On 7/7/20 7:00 PM, Eric Charles wrote:
>> > "Envy" might not be the exact right word, but it isn't far off, is it?
>> There is an inferiority complex of some sort, and a wish that you had
>> whatever thing those specific other people /seem /to have.
>>
>> --
>> ☣ uǝlƃ
>>
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