Occam's Razor Is Getting Harder to Cut

Loraine 2022-03-20 09:01:14

Today, I watched this movie with the sci-fi world theme viewing party. Although it was an activity initiated by me, it was the first time I saw this movie. The movie still feels a little lacking for me.
I talk about the science in the movie and Occam's tick. Scientific research, in fact, is to use Occam's razor to cut a phenomenon, or the creation of belief systems is based on the same principle. If a simple theory can explain a phenomenon, it doesn't need a more complex theory to explain it. That's how Occam cut that complex.
Then take an example:
thunder. At the beginning, the data we got was lightning, thunder, and possible destruction from the sky; we can come up with N theories to explain these data, and the simplest one is: Thor. This explanation suffices to explain what is known.
But later, more information came into everyone's sight: such as the common ground between thunder and electric discharge, such as the observation that Thor does not exist, such as Franklin's wire kite, and so on, the information pushed the razor back a little, it The explanation of thunder and lightning can no longer be chopped into the Thor of the sky, the atmospheric electrical theory is very complicated, much more complicated than the explanation of Thor, but Occam can't chop it down, because more data needs it to explain.
To give another example, the motion of objects, everything needs to be pushed to move the theory, Newton's equations, the equations of relativity, they all try to explain the laws of motion, and each one is more complicated, because more and more details need to be explained.
And then back in the movie, that knife cut was very strange. What kind of luck did you get that information?
Let's assume that aliens exist, but they neither come nor have any information to show their existence, then cut them down and they don't exist. And then in the movie, they actually got the signal and read it out. A primitive tribe staring at the fire on other islands really saw the bonfires on other islands, and these two islands are near Sri Lanka and Iceland, of course, we must believe that such good luck may appear in scientific research, so that the two-color ball becomes ashamed Good luck into billiards. Well, now that new information has been obtained, Razor cannot cut the explanation into the fact that aliens do not exist. Human beings need more information and more complex theories to explain about aliens. The engineering of hundreds of billions of knives ,very good.
Then, while we were waiting to see the aliens, Occam's razor miraculously flew back: everyone who does scientific research is told one thing, the experiments used to prove a conclusion must be repeatable, this is for the peers for verification. This movie performed very well. The heroine found the signal under the antenna array and shouted not "I found it", but "Quickly verify it!" This is the scientific literacy of the protagonist and the result of Occam's razor hanging high. , "Conclusions that have not been verified by peers are not called conclusions and will be cut off." However, there was no problem with the signal, until finally, more than 40 video cameras captured the alien air warehouse just in free fall, and the razor fell again.
A conclusion that cannot be repeatedly verified cannot be called a conclusion.
The existence of aliens is back in doubt, and conspiracy theories resurface. Blabla...
The development of science is to make the razor step back, and the theoretical system is more and more complete and more complex. At this point, there is a potential problem, or a problem that already exists: what happens when the razor retreats beyond human understanding? This is an existing problem in many scientific researches. I don't know calculus, and I can't do modern computing at all. How many students have been lost all at once.
This is question 1, question 2: How can a scientific researcher not let himself be cut by a razor? Even a staunch scientist like the heroine finally admits that his conclusions cannot escape the scope of the razor. Therefore, the difference between scientific research and civil science is that it is not only difficult for scientific research to draw conclusions, but also often admits that they have made mistakes. This is actually very important.

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Extended Reading

Contact quotes

  • Voice of NASA: [When the first Machine starts on] We have begun the full scale test of Earth's first system built by the sharing of knowledge with a neighbour in our Universe.

  • Palmer Joss: [during the IMC's candidates selection] Do you believe in God, Dr. Arroway?