[FRIAM] invoking quantum woo (was Book publishing advice needed)

[Roger Critchlow]

I actually find most of those explanations weak, given that, according to
Feynmann, no one understands quantum mechanics.  How does an appeal to
authority work when you appeal to an authority that does not understand and
cannot explain?  How does one don the attributes of experts who do not
understand or explain their expertise?   Where are the solid foundations of
quantum mechanics?

I suppose it could all be *pro forma* in that none of the participants
understand that there is no there there to which one could appeal, so the
appeal becomes nothing but a ritual motion with "quantum woo" taking the
place of whichever holiest holy worked last week.

But maybe it's exactly the inexplicability which is the secret sauce, that
there is something ineffable about the quantum physics.

-- rec --


On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 9:51 AM ∄ uǝlƃ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> OK. So, maybe y'all have collectively provided an answer. The reason(s)
> people invoke quantum woo so *often* is because it serves several (perhaps
> conflatable and ambiguous) purposes.
>
> In order of appearance in the thread:
> 1) justificationist appeals to authority
> 2) donning attributes others (seem to) have but you don't
> 3) hearkening to paradigm shifts and longing for solid foundations
> 4) power (both social and individual)
> 5) evocation of the shaman/oracle archetype
>
> Note, I'm not including ordinary physics, only woo, because that's what
> irritated me enough to stop reading "Ignorance" for so long. Firestein has
> lots of other riffs and hooks and it was childish of me to react that way
> ... but I can't help it. The woo is killing me. By contrast, imagining (and
> ruling out) an "airfoil" around pond scum in relation to the Purcell paper
> was NOT irritating at all. Invocations of actual physics are fine.
> Invocations of mysterious stuff just because it's mysterious flips my
> triggers.
>
> Speaking of the Purcell paper, this popped off the queue this morning:
>
> New Clues To ALS And Alzheimer's From Physics
>
> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/08/888687912/new-clues-to-als-and-alzheimers-from-physics
>
> I'm embarrassed that I didn't notice it sooner.
>
> --
> ☣ uǝlƃ
>
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