Reply To: Questions regarding DPF.

[Rezwan]

So many raging debates converge here.

The other rager is uncertainty and predictability. Some attempts are made to be very logical, in an area where logic…falters.

An event of interest: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/limits-of-understanding

This statement is false. Think about it, and it makes your head hurt. If it’s true, it’s false. If it’s false, it’s true. In 1931, Austrian logician Kurt Gödel shocked the worlds of mathematics and philosophy by establishing that such statements are far more than a quirky turn of language: he showed that there are mathematical truths which simply can’t be proven.

Whatever that means. And Taleb’s quote is also amusing:

A scientist talking about uncertainty, incompleteness, unknowledge, & ignorance, is like a psychopath talking about compassion.

and

Saying “the mathematics of uncertainty” is like saying “the chastity of sex” -what is mathematized is no longer uncertain, & vice versa.

I think it really gets down to humoring people in the face of uncertainty. Some people need to be humored more than others.

Some see the possibility in these wacky, uncertain propositions, finding it an excellent excuse to clean house and try something differently.