For those following the Omicron Hypothesis...I do plan to get back to writing about that. It's just that I was out of town for five days and the document reading is a slog.
The invention of science is a marvel. Looking at the Royal Society, I am struck by the dedication, conscientious, and ruthless self denial and self scrutiny of the men at the time. Yes there are stories of scientists faking the data even then, but I've been left since with the idea that only a very very narrow personality type is capable of science.
It is not enough to be brightz even genius. It is not enough to be bright and diligent. It requires a different kind of ego that is impervious to other people's feelings but also to ones one. It is a shocking kind of self denial and self possession at the same time. In the OCEAN big 5, it seems to require enormous conscientious with zero neuroticism. In the HEXACO 6, it needs off the charts honesty.
Anyway who gets a rush by being right, or being lauded, is mostly incapable of science. Anyone who cares what others think, again, mostly incapable of science.
The PhD s we're minting are good at box checking. They're good at rubrics. They're good at doing what you tell them to do. They connect no dots, they think nothing interesting, and they are rewarded for it. They can publish some other results, slightly different than the ones they've already got; they can get grants; they can do committee meetings. But it's not science. We have multi billions of dollars in "research" that's fake, utterly un repeatble, and even more, utterly worthless as it advances no fundamental good of our understanding of the universe or the human condition.
Another question, more relevant than what's in it for Tammet (money and recognition, what else is there really?) is what damage does this do to autistics?
Most of them have cognitive deficiences, not to mention have real trouble learning to function in social settings since their intuitive process for this doesn't do its job right. The last thing actual autistics need is a media image of them being really smart if only society would recognise it.
Newsflash: intelligence is the sum total of your mental faculties. An IQ of 150 is only relevant in relation to the rest of the group and says nothing of ego, knowledge, experience, wisdom, ethos, or common sense. Look up the IQ figures for those tried at the Nuremberg process... yikes.
Feb 5, 2022·edited Feb 5, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
I showed "The boy with the incredible..." video to my daughter yesterday and she went "oh wow!". Then I shared with her both of your posts today and she went like "ooooh WOOOOOW!" her eyes wide open. I could tell how learningful moment it was for her. She is young and impressionable. I could tell (all the great insights about memory capabilities that I hope she may go on exploring aside) that she realized how different things may be from what they appear to be at the first sight. Thank you so much for your articles, for sharing about your life and background, for triggering curiosity. I also look forward to reading more on omicron... H...10? Don't remember anymore, clearly need to train my memory better!
On the teaching of math ... my hypothesis, admittedly based on little more than my own unhappy experience with math instruction in high school, is that most math teachers are poor teachers. Perhaps most students failing at math are lacking in raw brainpower to understand a proof, let alone come up with one themselves. But the math teachers I've known always seemed strangely incurious about the possibility that there is a vast untapped potential of students who have too much, not too little, inside their minds to do well in their classes. "But why?" and "But how?" are the questions asked by skeptical minds that stand in the way of easy acceptance and familiarity with the "rules". Math teachers seem to tire too quickly of the task of climbing into the mind of each acceptance-resistant student as if exploring a cave with a unique pattern of stalagtites and stalagmites obstructing progress, instead preferring to work with the one or two kids in the class naturally gifted to grasp a proof quickly and the broad middle of non-comprehending but compliant rote learners and rule-users, while leaving the resisters behind in the dust with the dimbulbs.
Oh wow. heh heh. Well, INTJs are great at mind mapping which is why you could see through Temmet, and also why I can see where you might be going with this now.
Just a bit of tongue in cheek reminder on behalf of the memory and mathematically challenged. While higher levels of thinking are devoted to complex analysis, we live with the reality that references are always needed, examples documented and archived for when we forget all the details to cite. We've got you covered, no special memory just saves with bookmarks! :~)
This is a fascinating exploration. I'd come across Tammet years ago. Maybe it was 60 Minutes. Some show like that. I wasn't suspicious but you're surmises seem to make a lot more sense than the miraculous abilities springing forth from autism and epilepsy. I can't wait for the conclusion. I'm interested to hear your speculations about autism. I'm not clear exactly what it is.
The kid lisps in a wilted British public school accent when he's speaking English, but when he speaks foreign languages, he does a truly impressive job of mimicking the accent. Who knows what scam he's pulling.
As for science itself being unbelievably dumb, just remember this: no one knows how an ordinary house cat purrs. I know, it seems like it's be really obvious since SOMETHING inside the cat's body is vibrating - but nobody knows what it is that's vibrating. Literally a commonplace mystery that seemingly could be solved in five minutes with an MRI scan or something, but nobody's ever been able to figure it out.
At the moment, science is 99.99% religion and one tenth of one percent testing hypothesis in order to accumulate verifiable knowledge.
Haha Baron Cohen... The example of a man who lacks a true sense of self, who sees everyone else as like him. We anthromorphize animals to have our mind, and "smart idiots" like him do the same to other humans.
Same for the mathematicians that drive physics and chemistry today, who don't think of mechanical interactions because they aren't spatial visual...
Always funny to see engineers at my job not able to figure out why an issue persists, only for us techs to come in and find the cause with a few simple troubleshooting steps based on observation of the process.
This also explains why genetics and virology are broken sciences:
I saw that documentary years ago and was fooled. The achievements seemed super-human. Even after your explanations, I'm still impressed. But also impressed that you and many others have achieved similar feats. I guess I'm lazy. Or never cared.
Daniel Tammet, the name changer, is very clearly a tribe member, based on the abundance of photos of his face. Just one tribe member (Azoulai) giving a boost to another (Corney) for fame and profit. Only members of the elite families get book contracts like that, and I'd wager his place on the best seller list is fake.
Two things I want to add and that is because this subject is close to my heart.
First of all the Institutional Sciences is a religion in which the outcome has to prove the believe system otherwise it will not be accepted which is a basic flaw one that renders the whole charade incompetent.
Second is that overunity machines exist and work but because of said flaw will not be investigated further.
The religion of science is one of destruction, completely wrong.
Third: There is one invention that proves Albert Einstein (Fraud, second hand clerk) not just wrong but in the dustbin of history where he belongs.
This Invention achieves something nobody previously thought of and that is the theory of Infinite speed. As a result of this theory every point in the whole universe can be reached within a certain timeframe.
For those following the Omicron Hypothesis...I do plan to get back to writing about that. It's just that I was out of town for five days and the document reading is a slog.
The invention of science is a marvel. Looking at the Royal Society, I am struck by the dedication, conscientious, and ruthless self denial and self scrutiny of the men at the time. Yes there are stories of scientists faking the data even then, but I've been left since with the idea that only a very very narrow personality type is capable of science.
It is not enough to be brightz even genius. It is not enough to be bright and diligent. It requires a different kind of ego that is impervious to other people's feelings but also to ones one. It is a shocking kind of self denial and self possession at the same time. In the OCEAN big 5, it seems to require enormous conscientious with zero neuroticism. In the HEXACO 6, it needs off the charts honesty.
Anyway who gets a rush by being right, or being lauded, is mostly incapable of science. Anyone who cares what others think, again, mostly incapable of science.
The PhD s we're minting are good at box checking. They're good at rubrics. They're good at doing what you tell them to do. They connect no dots, they think nothing interesting, and they are rewarded for it. They can publish some other results, slightly different than the ones they've already got; they can get grants; they can do committee meetings. But it's not science. We have multi billions of dollars in "research" that's fake, utterly un repeatble, and even more, utterly worthless as it advances no fundamental good of our understanding of the universe or the human condition.
Another question, more relevant than what's in it for Tammet (money and recognition, what else is there really?) is what damage does this do to autistics?
Most of them have cognitive deficiences, not to mention have real trouble learning to function in social settings since their intuitive process for this doesn't do its job right. The last thing actual autistics need is a media image of them being really smart if only society would recognise it.
Newsflash: intelligence is the sum total of your mental faculties. An IQ of 150 is only relevant in relation to the rest of the group and says nothing of ego, knowledge, experience, wisdom, ethos, or common sense. Look up the IQ figures for those tried at the Nuremberg process... yikes.
I showed "The boy with the incredible..." video to my daughter yesterday and she went "oh wow!". Then I shared with her both of your posts today and she went like "ooooh WOOOOOW!" her eyes wide open. I could tell how learningful moment it was for her. She is young and impressionable. I could tell (all the great insights about memory capabilities that I hope she may go on exploring aside) that she realized how different things may be from what they appear to be at the first sight. Thank you so much for your articles, for sharing about your life and background, for triggering curiosity. I also look forward to reading more on omicron... H...10? Don't remember anymore, clearly need to train my memory better!
On the teaching of math ... my hypothesis, admittedly based on little more than my own unhappy experience with math instruction in high school, is that most math teachers are poor teachers. Perhaps most students failing at math are lacking in raw brainpower to understand a proof, let alone come up with one themselves. But the math teachers I've known always seemed strangely incurious about the possibility that there is a vast untapped potential of students who have too much, not too little, inside their minds to do well in their classes. "But why?" and "But how?" are the questions asked by skeptical minds that stand in the way of easy acceptance and familiarity with the "rules". Math teachers seem to tire too quickly of the task of climbing into the mind of each acceptance-resistant student as if exploring a cave with a unique pattern of stalagtites and stalagmites obstructing progress, instead preferring to work with the one or two kids in the class naturally gifted to grasp a proof quickly and the broad middle of non-comprehending but compliant rote learners and rule-users, while leaving the resisters behind in the dust with the dimbulbs.
Oh wow. heh heh. Well, INTJs are great at mind mapping which is why you could see through Temmet, and also why I can see where you might be going with this now.
Thank you Matt for doing the work and giving us the information that you give us on a regular basis!!! Keep up keeping on Brother...
Just a bit of tongue in cheek reminder on behalf of the memory and mathematically challenged. While higher levels of thinking are devoted to complex analysis, we live with the reality that references are always needed, examples documented and archived for when we forget all the details to cite. We've got you covered, no special memory just saves with bookmarks! :~)
https://web.archive.org/web/20220205152519/https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/engineering-illusions-of-the-science-7b2
This is a fascinating exploration. I'd come across Tammet years ago. Maybe it was 60 Minutes. Some show like that. I wasn't suspicious but you're surmises seem to make a lot more sense than the miraculous abilities springing forth from autism and epilepsy. I can't wait for the conclusion. I'm interested to hear your speculations about autism. I'm not clear exactly what it is.
The kid lisps in a wilted British public school accent when he's speaking English, but when he speaks foreign languages, he does a truly impressive job of mimicking the accent. Who knows what scam he's pulling.
As for science itself being unbelievably dumb, just remember this: no one knows how an ordinary house cat purrs. I know, it seems like it's be really obvious since SOMETHING inside the cat's body is vibrating - but nobody knows what it is that's vibrating. Literally a commonplace mystery that seemingly could be solved in five minutes with an MRI scan or something, but nobody's ever been able to figure it out.
At the moment, science is 99.99% religion and one tenth of one percent testing hypothesis in order to accumulate verifiable knowledge.
Haha Baron Cohen... The example of a man who lacks a true sense of self, who sees everyone else as like him. We anthromorphize animals to have our mind, and "smart idiots" like him do the same to other humans.
Same for the mathematicians that drive physics and chemistry today, who don't think of mechanical interactions because they aren't spatial visual...
Always funny to see engineers at my job not able to figure out why an issue persists, only for us techs to come in and find the cause with a few simple troubleshooting steps based on observation of the process.
This also explains why genetics and virology are broken sciences:
https://viroliegy.com/2022/01/26/the-epistemological-crisis-in-genomics/
I saw that documentary years ago and was fooled. The achievements seemed super-human. Even after your explanations, I'm still impressed. But also impressed that you and many others have achieved similar feats. I guess I'm lazy. Or never cared.
Have you looked at 2021 US mortality data? 1-4 y.o. -2.5%, but 5-14 y.o. +3.5%, 15-24 y.o. +21%
https://deadorkicking.com/death-statistics/us/2021/
Daniel Tammet, the name changer, is very clearly a tribe member, based on the abundance of photos of his face. Just one tribe member (Azoulai) giving a boost to another (Corney) for fame and profit. Only members of the elite families get book contracts like that, and I'd wager his place on the best seller list is fake.
Very good... a little long but very good.
Two things I want to add and that is because this subject is close to my heart.
First of all the Institutional Sciences is a religion in which the outcome has to prove the believe system otherwise it will not be accepted which is a basic flaw one that renders the whole charade incompetent.
Second is that overunity machines exist and work but because of said flaw will not be investigated further.
The religion of science is one of destruction, completely wrong.
Third: There is one invention that proves Albert Einstein (Fraud, second hand clerk) not just wrong but in the dustbin of history where he belongs.
This Invention achieves something nobody previously thought of and that is the theory of Infinite speed. As a result of this theory every point in the whole universe can be reached within a certain timeframe.
The Invention is mine.
The Theory is mine.
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/the-invention-the-illuminati-does