Why Phil Falcone Is Similar The Nearly Loopy Left-Wingers Inwards America
Alan Sokal, a Professor of Mathematics at University College London as well as a Professor of Physics at New York University published this in Social Text - a peer reviewed left-wing magazine of post-modern thought published past times Duke University Press.
It was of class a hoax, business office of a long as well as really funny article titled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity".
To Sokal the article was a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American magazine of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries every bit Fredric Jameson as well as Andrew Ross -- issue an article liberally salted amongst nonsense if (a) it sounded expert as well as (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?
The respond was unfortunately yes.
And it was self-evidently nonsense. The quote I plough over you lot higher upwards includes that physical "reality" [and notation the "scare quotes"] no less than social ``reality'', is at bottom a social as well as linguistic construct. Sokal invites "anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions to seek transgressing those conventions from the windows of [his] apartment. (He lives on the twenty-first floor.)
I volition discover when the physics has something useful to say as well as its an declaration betwixt left-wing social theorists as well as conventional physics the physicist wins. Conventional physics is (at to the lowest degree inside the distances as well as unloosen energy levels nosotros tin plough over the axe measure) really settled scientific discipline - as well as to say novel things you lot require to move to infinitesimal sizes or massive unloosen energy levels (as per the Large Hadron Collider).
The Sokal hoax was funny - but it was hardly necessary. The social sciences whose reply to difficult scientific discipline is to deny it are best ignored. Unless you lot take away keep Alan Sokal's feel of sense of humor it is non fifty-fifty that much fun teasing them.
Anyway - this form of anti-science based obscurantism has historically been the province of the Left. I hateful who other than a left-wing loopy intellectual would yell upwards that the reality described past times conventional physics is a social structure - a conspiracy of physicists. And a physical reality they tin plough over the axe salvage you lot from past times deposing the difficult (and testable sciences) so they tin plough over the axe install themselves every bit a priest-class who empathize this social structure stuff (not to refer the obscure jargon inwards my opening quote).
Oh I know who gives these self-indulgent as well as self-important left-wingers a run for their money. The novel anti-science conspiracy theorists are on the right. Evolutionary biological scientific discipline is a conspiracy of godless liberals who desire to undermine God's laws. Climate modify is a conspiracy to permit Government to a greater extent than command over your life.
It is funnier when it is a bunch of academics. History has a way of sending the loopy ideas of academics to the obscurity they deserve. It is less funny when it is politicians.
But this is non a spider web log almost the anti-science elite inwards politics as well as academia. Its a spider web log generally almost fiscal markets as well as their goings on as well as all the crappy things you lot tin plough over the axe invest in.
When people inwards fiscal markets behavior that way - believing their socially constructed reality over physics - as well as so it is fourth dimension to move brusk them.
There are few technology scientific discipline companies out in that place (and sad I volition non yell names because I don't desire to laid the shorts crowded) whose basic premise seems to conflict amongst the minute constabulary of thermodynamics. [Not agreement the minute constabulary of thermodynamics is to scientific discipline what non beingness able to read is to literature.]
But when you lot come across this stuff inwards markets you lot take away keep only got to brusk it. I know rich people who are commonly smart who invested in Blacklight Power. I only could non move out a way of shorting it.
It requires a special-brand of delusion to build your basis such that basic scientific discipline does non apply to you. Its the laid of delusion that the fools from Social Text have. Its the laid of delusion that around of America's to a greater extent than loopy right-wing politicians have.
Alas it is likewise the laid of delusion that Phil Falcone has. It was the laid of delusion which powered Lightsquared.
The physics of radio interference is settled. This is physics at ordinary distances as well as ordinary unloosen energy levels. (To discover non-settled physics you lot require to shorten the distances as well as heighten the unloosen energy levels every bit per the LHC.)
We know this stuff.
We know that if you lot lay a depression ability radio station nigh a high powered radio station the high-powered station causes interference. We empathize resonances betwixt unlike frequencies.
As I said - this stuff is settled.
But that did non halt Phil Falcone investing his clients coin inwards a loophole - an effort to accept spectrum which was allocated to low-powered devices (satellites) as well as wishing to purpose it for high-powered devices (mobile telephone towers) as well as to yell upwards everything would move OK. I wrote almost it recently - but take away keep had the sentiment for around time. And it was inwards contradiction to physical reality (and this fourth dimension I did non lay "reality" inwards scare quotes because that reality is actually real).
Phil Falcone is almost sure smarter than the idiots who edit Social Text. But years of success as well as the foreign cocoon of beingness a Wall Street billionaire got Falcone to the betoken that he thought that reality did non apply to him.
He became only similar the most loopy of left-wingers.
Still Lightsquared is dead - the FCC has right away determined that the conflicts amongst GPS are non able to move resolved. That is a fatal blow to Lightsquared (and I am glad). It agency that parts of the regime (like Defence who value their GPS) all the same take away keep a say as well as that anti-science obscurantism is non everywhere - only on the far-left, far-right as well as inwards the minds of around especially self-indulged Wall Street types.
There is promise inwards the world.
John
But deep conceptual shifts inside twentieth-century scientific discipline take away keep undermined this Cartesian-Newtonian metaphysics1; revisionist studies inwards the history as well as philosophy of scientific discipline take away keep cast farther dubiousness on its credibility2; and, most recently, feminist as well as poststructuralist critiques take away keep demystified the noun content of mainstream Western scientific practice, revealing the ideology of domination concealed behind the façade of ``objectivity''.3 It has thence move increasingly apparent that physical ``reality'', no less than social ``reality'', is at bottom a social as well as linguistic construct; that scientific ``knowledge", far from beingness objective, reflects as well as encodes the dominant ideologies as well as ability relations of the civilization that produced it; that the truth claims of scientific discipline are inherently theory-laden as well as self-referential; as well as consequently, that the discourse of the scientific community, for all its undeniable value, cannot assert a privileged epistemological condition amongst honor to counter-hegemonic narratives emanating from dissident or marginalized communities. These themes tin plough over the axe move traced, despite around differences of emphasis, inwards Aronowitz's analysis of the cultural stuff that produced quantum mechanics4; inwards Ross' word of oppositional discourses inwards post-quantum science5; inwards Irigaray's as well as Hayles' exegeses of sex encoding inwards fluid mechanics6; as well as inwards Harding's comprehensive critique of the sex ideology underlying the natural sciences inwards full general as well as physics inwards particular.7
It was of class a hoax, business office of a long as well as really funny article titled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity".
To Sokal the article was a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American magazine of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries every bit Fredric Jameson as well as Andrew Ross -- issue an article liberally salted amongst nonsense if (a) it sounded expert as well as (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?
The respond was unfortunately yes.
And it was self-evidently nonsense. The quote I plough over you lot higher upwards includes that physical "reality" [and notation the "scare quotes"] no less than social ``reality'', is at bottom a social as well as linguistic construct. Sokal invites "anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions to seek transgressing those conventions from the windows of [his] apartment. (He lives on the twenty-first floor.)
I volition discover when the physics has something useful to say as well as its an declaration betwixt left-wing social theorists as well as conventional physics the physicist wins. Conventional physics is (at to the lowest degree inside the distances as well as unloosen energy levels nosotros tin plough over the axe measure) really settled scientific discipline - as well as to say novel things you lot require to move to infinitesimal sizes or massive unloosen energy levels (as per the Large Hadron Collider).
The Sokal hoax was funny - but it was hardly necessary. The social sciences whose reply to difficult scientific discipline is to deny it are best ignored. Unless you lot take away keep Alan Sokal's feel of sense of humor it is non fifty-fifty that much fun teasing them.
Anyway - this form of anti-science based obscurantism has historically been the province of the Left. I hateful who other than a left-wing loopy intellectual would yell upwards that the reality described past times conventional physics is a social structure - a conspiracy of physicists. And a physical reality they tin plough over the axe salvage you lot from past times deposing the difficult (and testable sciences) so they tin plough over the axe install themselves every bit a priest-class who empathize this social structure stuff (not to refer the obscure jargon inwards my opening quote).
Oh I know who gives these self-indulgent as well as self-important left-wingers a run for their money. The novel anti-science conspiracy theorists are on the right. Evolutionary biological scientific discipline is a conspiracy of godless liberals who desire to undermine God's laws. Climate modify is a conspiracy to permit Government to a greater extent than command over your life.
It is funnier when it is a bunch of academics. History has a way of sending the loopy ideas of academics to the obscurity they deserve. It is less funny when it is politicians.
But this is non a spider web log almost the anti-science elite inwards politics as well as academia. Its a spider web log generally almost fiscal markets as well as their goings on as well as all the crappy things you lot tin plough over the axe invest in.
When people inwards fiscal markets behavior that way - believing their socially constructed reality over physics - as well as so it is fourth dimension to move brusk them.
There are few technology scientific discipline companies out in that place (and sad I volition non yell names because I don't desire to laid the shorts crowded) whose basic premise seems to conflict amongst the minute constabulary of thermodynamics. [Not agreement the minute constabulary of thermodynamics is to scientific discipline what non beingness able to read is to literature.]
But when you lot come across this stuff inwards markets you lot take away keep only got to brusk it. I know rich people who are commonly smart who invested in Blacklight Power. I only could non move out a way of shorting it.
It requires a special-brand of delusion to build your basis such that basic scientific discipline does non apply to you. Its the laid of delusion that the fools from Social Text have. Its the laid of delusion that around of America's to a greater extent than loopy right-wing politicians have.
Alas it is likewise the laid of delusion that Phil Falcone has. It was the laid of delusion which powered Lightsquared.
The physics of radio interference is settled. This is physics at ordinary distances as well as ordinary unloosen energy levels. (To discover non-settled physics you lot require to shorten the distances as well as heighten the unloosen energy levels every bit per the LHC.)
We know this stuff.
We know that if you lot lay a depression ability radio station nigh a high powered radio station the high-powered station causes interference. We empathize resonances betwixt unlike frequencies.
As I said - this stuff is settled.
But that did non halt Phil Falcone investing his clients coin inwards a loophole - an effort to accept spectrum which was allocated to low-powered devices (satellites) as well as wishing to purpose it for high-powered devices (mobile telephone towers) as well as to yell upwards everything would move OK. I wrote almost it recently - but take away keep had the sentiment for around time. And it was inwards contradiction to physical reality (and this fourth dimension I did non lay "reality" inwards scare quotes because that reality is actually real).
Phil Falcone is almost sure smarter than the idiots who edit Social Text. But years of success as well as the foreign cocoon of beingness a Wall Street billionaire got Falcone to the betoken that he thought that reality did non apply to him.
He became only similar the most loopy of left-wingers.
Still Lightsquared is dead - the FCC has right away determined that the conflicts amongst GPS are non able to move resolved. That is a fatal blow to Lightsquared (and I am glad). It agency that parts of the regime (like Defence who value their GPS) all the same take away keep a say as well as that anti-science obscurantism is non everywhere - only on the far-left, far-right as well as inwards the minds of around especially self-indulged Wall Street types.
There is promise inwards the world.
John
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