* Veit Elser <ve10@cornell.edu> [Jun 04. 2012 15:21]:
On Jun 4, 2012, at 12:07 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
As in everything else, Feynman was prescient when he talked of "Cargo Cults":
I looked up the Wikipedia "cargo cult science" article and found that its selection of examples is quite poor. Feynman made two points in his famous commencement address: (1) that just because something has all the trappings of science doesn't make it science, and (2) true science must "bend over backwards" to make its case. Cargo cult science refers to (1) but the Wikipedia examples include the drift in oil-drop charge values over time, which is really an example of (2).
So here is a fun idea. Let's come up with a list of true examples of cargo cult science within Wikipedia itself, and then revise the cargo cult article accordingly. At the top of my list is:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_model_of_trade
Can you beat that one?
-Veit
Quick shot remark: picking on Wikipedia is easy and I tend to frown upon it, while I do note that some complaints are (or at least seem to be) valid. I happen to be an editor for the OEIS and I do see the other side, like relentless self-promotion, careless editing, sock-puppetry, fat egos, etc. About that Gravity-model: Sometimes a "stupid" (phenomenological) model can be just fine. I recall a (very good) talk by a physicist about how traffic flow on the Autobahn (including traffic jams) can be modelled via fluid dynamics. Stupid? No, about every real-world factor (like anticipation-triggered driver's behavior) can be mapped to some physical effect that goes into the governing equations. They analyzed videos taken from choppers, those matched the predictions essentially within "measuring accuracy". Note that the "Gravity-model" article doesn't have equivalents in (either French or) German. Maybe the often blamed/hated German Wiki-editors are doing something right ;^) The one pseudo-science thing (apart from eso-scams) that makes my blood boil is the multitude of ad-hoc terms that people "analyzing" stock charts are using. Makes me want to execute everyone of them, together with their families and pets, just to be sure. cheers, jj