Unchallenged privilege by Bibhas De

Author:Bibhas De [De, Bibhas]
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

6. Dissidence: Slow thinking in fast times

Generally speaking, when a scientific discovery is announced, the reaction within the relevant scientific establishment ranges from applauding acceptance to polite reserve. There is nowadays another forum operative on the Internet consisting of people who are outside that establishment, and often outside the academia. They may include disaffected scientists with strong positions, science enthusiasts, and amateurs who think they have something important to say on the subject. All this is known, and is not very germane to the present discussion.

But there was an important development in this regard with respect to LIGO. There was a complete polarization in the views of the two forums. The first one expressed their unanimous acceptance and offered their ultimate praise. There was not a hint of doubt. The second one – starting on the very day the discovery was announced – showed great skepticism. Some of their comments were astute and applicable. It is this polarization that I find of interest, hinting at a far larger issue related to the plight of science.

Therefore I will mention some of the comments from the second forum, the dissidents in this case. I will then present a few representative comments from the establishment side.

Claes Johnson is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. On 12 February 2016, the day after the discovery was announced, he made a blog post part of which was as follows [13]:

AbsurdityofModernPhysics:LIGOGravitationalWaveDetection asIll-posed Problem We understand that an expansion-contraction of the Earth of the size of an atom nucleus diameter as an effect of a “ripple in the fabric of space-time” was detected during 0.25 seconds, and from this observation the conclusion is drawn by computer simulations and modelling that this extremely minute effect as a “ripple in the fabric of space-time”, was the result of a very specific extremely gigantic invisible explosion 1.3 billion light years away shining brighter than all stars in all galaxies for 0.25 seconds in the form of gravitational waves.

We see a combination of a biggest possible cause/input and a smallest po ssible effect/output in a certain mathematical model. The conclusion comes from using this mathematical model in inverse form, where a smallest possible signal is used to identify a biggest possible origin of the signal.

This means that the mathematical model in inverse form is extremely ill-posed and as such cannot be used to draw conclusions. To do so requires that all alternative explanations of the zero signal can be eliminated, and it is then not enough to just say that no other explanation immediately suggest themselves, that is to draw conclusions from ignorance with the precision of the conclusions increasing as the ignorance or stupidity grows.

I like this comment because of its fundamental logical clarity. Basically it says this: How can you probe infinity with zero? This is a serious consideration at the root of the LIGO approach. LIGO’s difficulty or credit is not measuring a small quantity. It is value of this small quantity that is at issue.

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