> If you think there are others, please exhibit one.
Benevolent giant omnitech space squid manipulate EM radiation incident on the solar system to fool our primitive meat brains and sand computers into thinking we're alone in the universe so we don't go venture our and embarrass our local cluster.
See? There exist infinite theories explaining any set of data points. Parsimony, choosing the simplest theory that explains the facts, is what lets us make progress understanding and predicting the world around us. It's hard to predict space squid.
Thats like saying cars run because they want to, and only make us perfect the engine, and processes that happen inside it, to fool us into thinking we have a say in whether a car will run.
Sure, it is a hypothesis, but thanks to the Scientific Method the majority of people with knowledge in the field knows its most likely BS.
Going the same "it can be for ANY reason, guys!" in any field, will not get you much far, regardless if you feel justified in your ignorance or not.
The funny thing is, though, you can easily dismiss a crazy idea like "omnitech space squid", but a majority of humans on Earth today have entire worldviews based on equally silly ideas, and it's considered wrong somehow to mock these belief systems. In fact, many scientists subscribe to these silly belief systems, but then get offended if you make up an equally silly idea about space squid or flying spaghetti monsters.
> it can be for ANY reason, guys!" in any field, will not get you much far, regardless if you feel justified in your ignorance or not.
Of course not. The point is logical correctness: as a matter of logic, infinite theories explain any set of facts. Are almost all of these theories useless? Of course. We should restrict our attention to plausible theories.
But how do we decide which theories are plausible? We look for the ones that require the fewest assumptions.
Try that with computer technology. You are now not just scary, but really really scary.
"That is like saying computers run because they want to, and only make us perfect the CPU, and secret processes inside it, to fool us into thinking we have a say in whether a computer will run."
I am going to quietly turn off my computer.
I am just thinking about Steven Wolfram's causal networks.
> See? There exist infinite theories explaining any set of data points. Parsimony, choosing the simplest theory that explains the facts, is what lets us make progress understanding and predicting the world around us. It's hard to predict space squid.
It’s not a scientific theory though. Which is a super important distinction in this discussion
Benevolent giant omnitech space squid manipulate EM radiation incident on the solar system to fool our primitive meat brains and sand computers into thinking we're alone in the universe so we don't go venture our and embarrass our local cluster.
See? There exist infinite theories explaining any set of data points. Parsimony, choosing the simplest theory that explains the facts, is what lets us make progress understanding and predicting the world around us. It's hard to predict space squid.