Gell-Mann Amnesia and Michio Kaku

[@Hoodges157]

30,000 years in the future a dude calling himself "The Emporer of Man" makes 20 super soldier legions, each with a herculean leader called a Primarch. He sets out with them to reclaim the lost space colonies of humanity, but civil war breaks out, with half the primarchs on each side. The civil war ends with the rebel leader dead and the Emporer mortally wounded, bound to a life-support called the Golden Throne. 10,000 years later (40k), he's kept alive in a horrible agonzing locked-in syndrome kinda state, all the primarchs are scattered or dead, and everyone is at war with a bunch of aliens and each other. Also there's weird space-demon magic. Also all the humans worship the Emporer as a god now which is exactly what he hated when he was up and moving around.

[@TheShizzlemop]

great work, i love it.

[@thevorace]

Fascinating! I've heard of this game but had no knowledge of it until now!

[@rangda_prime]

Mmmm, that's not how I would have explained it...

[@MrMeltdown]

@@rangda_primeslightly heretical isn’t it…

[@Maric18]

absolutely perfect explanation, nothing to improve

[@CaptainDisillusion]

Your channel was filed as "the Jenny Nicholson of science" in my mind this entire time :D

[@joaquinlaks]

OMG captain, wasn't expecting to see you here!

[@ChewyTwee]

Based Captain Disillusion holy shit. High praise to have the captain compare you to Jenny Nicholson lol. Also very accurate comparison, the very lowkey presentation is really nice. I think to me it feels more like a conversation than a lecture

[@luketaylor1257]

I love seeing The Captain in the wild.

[@vercality6170]

i'd expect you here more than anywhere else

[@DEMSMLP]

the tone and cadence is scarily similar

[@OrlovKruskayev]

"Oh no I am a science communicator Oh no oh god Please end this I never meant for this to happen I just like telling stories on the internet" Fully aware of the horror, I am laughing

[@whatelseison8970]

"Am I just supposed to constantly fact check all the facts that are in my head? Oh I am...? that sucks." Classic.

[@essendossev362]

Also, you should be critically thinking about everything at all moments of time. You must constantly test whether the theory of gravity still holds. ... I feel exhausted at the thought.

[@SkorjOlafsen]

@@essendossev362 The nice thing is: the important stuff in one's life is easy to constantly be testing, as long as you make a modest effort to avoid confirmation bias, because it's right there in your day-to-day. Are my best practices still best practices, or have they become harmful ritual? Once you remember to ask the question, the answer is pretty obvious. All the other stuff, the stuff that doesn't actually affect you? Maybe it's OK to be wrong.

[@peanutbutter625]

@@essendossev362 You can just lie down if you're tired. Or up, if the theory of gravity no longer holds.

[@TwoForFlinchin1]

@@essendossev362 how often are you reading articles about the nonexistence of gravity?

[@user_2793]

You have no idea how many times I've fallen a victim to misinformation and come to this exact conclusion 🥲

[@sideways5153]

I remember a lot of older educational communicators having a rider during their introductions where they explain what their expertise is and what they are not experts in - “I’m Dr John Doe, not a medical doctor but a doctor of biochemistry. I got my doctorate studying electricity in the body, so I know a lot about how a defibrillator works - just don’t ask me to use one on you!” It was always something people either used to try and break the ice or something people felt awkward doing, but it always really helped contextualize that an expert can only provide so much information on their own, because it’s impossible to know everything well enough to teach all of it.

[@qwirkt]

The only way to beat the issue is to give more visibility to journalists/creators/communicators who either have some past studying done on the field, or commit to studying/fact-checking whatever they’ll write/talk about

[@pavelandreev4727]

@@qwirkt That would be nice, but the problem is not (only) the journalists but the audience. People now want soundbites, bits that fit in a picture, a tiktok or whatever. You can't give more visibility if people don't want to watch

[@xWood4000]

It's maybe just an example, but I hope someone who studies electricity in the body understands the importance of a first aid course. Facility defibrillators are made to be used without any training, and with confidence with a first aid course

[@connemignonne]

explaining what an eigenvalue problem is halfway through the video so we could all experience mann-gell amnesia first-hand was genius

[@eypandabear7483]

I found myself thinking “aargh I wouldn’t have said matrix, I would have said linear operator”.

[@najawin8348]

@@eypandabear7483 Okay, but, physicists.

[@eypandabear7483]

@@najawin8348 I *am* a physicist.

[@imbaby5499]

​@@eypandabear7483physicist moment. That's a linear map. /s

[@dinobotpwnz]

She wrote zero the way I write the empty set... mneauh!

[@spaceyote7174]

I just wanna say that as a girl studying astrophysics and who is very concerned about debunking stupid fake science and misinfo, Dr Collier is a huge role model for me.

[@coyohma8947]

“As a guy studying in college where 64% of the students are female..” Just stop with the gender politics. Constantly thinking and talking about it is very arguably a negative for the very thing you claim to care about (re: normalizing it).

[@EricK-tx1ll]

​@Coyohma you woke up this early just to be a dumbass?

[@crapsquire]

@@coyohma8947 I know, can you believe it? To think that someone might actually describe themselves when they think it's relevant. It's just shocking! I am quite sure you know best how to normalize things for us - I mean given what she claims to care about (when did she say that bit, anyway I'm sure you know).

[@coyohma8947]

@@crapsquire It isn’t relevant. A woman simply talking shouldn’t prompt you to publicly opine about how you’re also a woman. That’s just fucking weird.

[@maxireigl1919]

@@coyohma8947 As a guy active in a student aerospace society let me tell you one thing: when we do recruiting events and staff our info booth only with guys, almost no girls talk to us. The moment we put at least one girl in the booth, lots of girls talk to us. As it turns out, many girls feel more comfortable participating in engineering/physics/computer-science activities when there's already other girls there. Representation and role models do, in fact, matter.

[@poneill65]

Kaku long ago gave up any pretense of being a legitimate scientist for his pursuit of the lucrative "talking head" gig, finely manicuring his caricature of a scientist, and caring zero for the accuracy of his statements. I finally lost ALL respect for him when I once saw him asked about scientific/engineering matter far outside his experience and capability and he ploughed right in giving a answer that even to me, a complete lay person, was wildly inaccurate. He's willing to prostitute himself on any subject to keep the gravy train rolling.

[@grayaj23]

Yeah, I'm not a scientist, but about 10 years or so ago I figured out that what he was saying had gone beyond convenient oversimplification for the purpose of effective communication and into Deepak Chopraville. Nowadays I have more respect for Chopra.

[@evanhoffman7995]

I've grown up knowing him as "that guy who's in every science documentary," and always wondered if he actually did any science

[@foobar1500]

Pretty hard to say when I had this realisation, but that sounds very familiar. All of this is probably affected by the fact that I effectively stopped watching TV (at least intentionally) mid-nineties, and started watching anything in video format again less than a decade ago when it started to become obvious that there is actually quality KZbin content for niches I care about. Maybe it's also about the fact that Kaku is an American media personality, not that highly present in European media. It might be also related to differences between expected public behaviour of scientists (US vs. Europe) and the increasing disillusionment related to string theory, but the first time I heard of Kaku (that's decades ago) I felt he's way too much into drawing trivialised conclusions, and recently I've found painful to watch anything that includes him, because I'm getting the feeling he's actually actively dishonest on the subject just because his television documentary persona is more important than actual science he's supposedly discussing... Then again, there are plenty of brilliant scientists who have varying amounts of personal pet peeves which can be sometimes very annoying, but they're nonetheless positive contributors, maybe not just on all those fields they think. Now it's hard to think so in the case of Kaku, though.

[@TheGotoGeek]

I lost all respect for Kaku back in the Cassini days when he fanned the flames of RTG paranoia for airtime. I’ve ignored him ever since.

[@keithklassen5320]

I believe you entirely, random internet stranger!

[@cliffvickyt]

Thank you! I cannot begin to explain just how much this video is impacting my world at this very moment! I have recently been wrestling with this very issue in myself without understanding that I do this *so* *much* and it has caused so many issues in my life that I never understood until now. You have literally (and I mean *literally*) started me on what might be the most important journey into the understanding of a toxic behavior of mine that has not served me well in my life. At. All. You have helped me to put this into a context that I believe will (finally) allow me to make substantive changes to my behavior that will alleviate this negative personality trait that is the root of so much frustration and dissatisfaction in how I have related to others:) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[@cliffvickyt]

Oh - I didn’t realize that this comment would be public :( yikes

[@ritac9769]

​@@cliffvickyt You should never be embarrassed for openly talking about your own shortcomings and desire to better yourself. The world is too full of narcissists and idiots who lack self awareness and have tons of blind spots in their character, so its refreshing to see this level of honesty on the internet.

[@TheReddaredevil223]

@@cliffvickyt Based and self-reflection pilled

[@garysamuel9521]

Only English speakers understand ’at all’. Recommend never using the phrase.

[@TheReddaredevil223]

@@garysamuel9521 My feeling on the matter is that if you're not an English speaker then you wouldn't be able to understand the entire paragraph!

[@DoctorFatman]

A lot of people on KZbin like to say shit like “I won't go into the details, because this video is already long enough”, and it's like a 15-minute video, and I hate that, so I would like to sincerely thank you for actually going into details immediately. It's refreshing.

[@MrMeltJr]

My sense of video length is so skewed by video essays now. I'll hear somebody say "this video is already long enough" and I'll be thinking... this video is only an hour long, you could totally add a 20 minute tangent on a minor detail.

[@flerfbuster7993]

@@MrMeltJr yeah lmao, I'll never be the same after Quinton Reviews' 8 hour long video essay.

[@typicallucas]

Calc 1 prof “We won’t cover partial derivatives, it’s too advanced for Calc 1” Calc 2 prof “You should have learned partial derivatives in Calc 1”

[@coolsenjoyer]

​@@MrMeltJr The creator of Fallout Tim Cain recently started a channel where he just talks about his experiences from his 40 year game dev career in pretty short videos and he comes off exactly like that but its fine in his case because he posts literally every day

[@lt3880]

This is the youtube algorithm at work. KZbin rewards shorter videos with higher % watch times. Also just takes longer for people to edit and generally more work.

[@fruitshuit]

I loved how the second you called Warhammer a "board game" I found myself doing the face and thinking "well...that's not how I'd describe it" 😂 Great video!

[@marcogenovesi8570]

It's technically correct, board game is an incredibly generic term that can apply to pretty much anything you play on a table

[@kmrst10000]

​@@marcogenovesi8570 You saw someone give a brief explanation about something you know and went "Hmmm.... That's not how I would explain it."

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@kmrst10000 Nope, I'm just stating facts. There is nothing personal about stating literal word definitions.

[@grayaj23]

@@kmrst10000 \*inception noise\*

[@Bozeman42]

@@marcogenovesi8570 The more general term is 'tabletop game'. *takes off "Hmmm.... That's not how I would explain it." hat*

[@PsRohrbaugh]

You made some great points about Michio Kaku. I just hope it's understood this applies to many famous pop scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, not to mention "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (who in fact has a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering). They all have spoken well outside their academic authority, have mixed personal opinions with science, and have made provably incorrect statements. Michio Kaku is definitely the best example I'm aware of, but he's not the only one.

[@copalfreak5107]

I miss Carl Sagan.

[@josericardoxavier_]

@@copalfreak5107carl sagan is probably a super example of this. That man made his way into every academic field and also deep topics of philosophy without actually knowing nothing about them. But I guess his documentaries and books give him a free pass to lie about a range of topics because astronomy was so cool back then

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

@@josericardoxavier_ "Celebrity scientists". Gotta love them.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

@@juzoli I think your view is extremely optimistic. I'm sure we could both cherry-pick examples to make our points. What people need to understand is that some science is more settled than others, and it's all open to revision if we follow the scientific method. People want the absolute truth, but that's not what science provides. We come up with theories that explain data we collect from the real world. Tomorrow, someone might come up with a better theory that explains the data better. But until then we make do with what we have. For some theories, that's pretty concrete. For other theories there's still a lot of uncertainty. This entire concept is what most pop-sci people fail to communicate well. They convey current theories as truth, and people get upset when the "truth" changes 10 / 20 / 30+ years later.

[@BlueGiant69202]

The point about bringing in a meteorologist or even an experienced FEMA person that has weathered a few hurricanes already and knows what to do was very good. Newspapers and publishers did the same kind of thing with Einstein in his day. Let's ask Digital Einstein what he thinks about this. Everybody knows he's a genius!

[@0sm1um76]

I feel like this channel was made for me. I am a 1st generation grad student who graduated undergrad with a physics degree, and is currently an engineering PhD student who also has recently started getting into Warhammer 40k, who also thinks Steven Pinker and Michio Kaku are asshats.

[@lumotroph]

😂

[@mapleveritas2698]

That is a bit harsh. I read almost all of Stephen Pinker's books. I don't agree with him most of the time. Still, it is nice to know his ideas. Interesting ideas are the hardest things to have. Getting new ideas substantial enough for my master and doctoral theses was the most difficult part of my graduate school. My supervisor would only tell me the general area I was supposed to do my research. To then think of new and novel ideas good enough for theses is the tough part. So, I don't mind reading about others' ideas. I don't really pay attention to Pinker's personality. Another "character" that seems to evoke the same reaction from many people seems to be Stephen Jay Gould. I don't know why, as he was a very good story teller. For what it is worth, I also read all of Gadwell's books. Interesting books. Again for the ideas. I don't fact check him. In terms of Kaku, I recognize the face but don't really know what he is about. I actually don't know anything about physics. I don't even know why this channel was recommended to me. But since I like podcast kind of videos that I don't have to look at the video, so that I can do something else at the same time, this channel is excellent.

[@Doo_Doo_Patrol]

What is an asshat?

[@kakistocracyusa]

Steven Pinker is at a far more severe level of asshat; in fact, much of so-called "neuroscientists" are pseudo-scientific asshats already. Kaku just bs' his way through areas of physics where he is has no depth.

[@maemorri]

I'm just an idiot with an idiot bachelor degree (in a liberal arts field no less). Is it pretentious of me to also think Michio Kaku is an asshat?

[@WeeWeeJumbo]

In my late twenties I realized I’d been Igon Valuing my way through life since early childhood and suddenly I wanted every person who had ever known me to forget me completely

[@Doo_Doo_Patrol]

Little Black Sambo's dad was Big Black Jumbo...mom, Big Black Mumbo.

[@lizardkeeper100]

I'm there right now

[@Doo_Doo_Patrol]

Micho kaka du du.@@JoshuaLatos

[@cracknigga]

Finally we have a term that we can use on 80% of people on Reddit!

[@sarinazabel4622]

Having never seen that clip before, watching Michio Kaku use his signature upbeat personality and frivolous metaphors to describe an unfolding natural disaster is surreal and hilarious

[@jamesp.mcquoid1639]

and horrifying.

[@dinobotpwnz]

I was expecting it to be the clip where he lied that the Higgs boson is called the god particle because it's responsible for inflation. But the Hurricane Harvey one was even worse.

[@uilsoum875]

"And the nightmare starts all over again :D"

[@uilsoum875]

@@off6848 hurricanes are bowling balls and time is a river and the world is made of pudding...

[@off6848]

Can someone explain what he means by a bowling ball? I can't make sense of it. From what I understand its more like a whirlpool or a vortex, in which an area of low pressure causes an acceleration of air towards it, like water going down a drain the center or drain hole is the low pressure point and the event corona around it is the violent force vectors of energy transference due to centripetal convergence and centrifugal divergence. In other words its all pressure mediation, expansion and contraction.

[@shotgun2a]

The "post credits roll" nod to Technology Connections is absolute genius.

[@antonioarroyas7662]

Hit so much harder because of her Kaku rant! We need more people calling out his Deepak Chopra of science BS.

[@TheRedsMan11]

Came here to say this. Love the reference.

[@ericchin739]

Hahaha yes!!! Technology Connection is an amazing channel! Love that dude.

[@PifflePrattle]

Agreed, TC is great. Also what do you get when you take the U out of Kaku? I don't know if ER = EPR but I'm confident KAKU = KAK.

[@ryanrutley4820]

This is the KZbin crossover I never knew I needed.

[@gubooo2000]

Related anecdote about Steven Pinker, when I was doing my undergrad at McGill I actually dropped Pinker's course after a single lecture due perhaps to an "Igon Value Problem" of sorts. As a psychology student with an interest in philosophy, I was excited to take his Philosophy of Mind course (I was not aware of his fame, but the course was quite popular). In the lecture I had attended, Pinker was talking about some topic (I believe it was communication patterns in non-human primates). Coincidentally, I was at the same time learning about the same exact topic (presumably communication in non-human primates) in a neuropsychology course, examined in a way that was highly rigorous, highly experiment driven, and highly contemporary (for the time circa 2006). Pinker, on the other hand, was citing research that was at the time archaic, and jumping to conclusions that were, for lack of a better word, kinda cringe. He seemed to be discussing things related to science without scientific rigor, without familiarizing himself with the contemporary science on the topic, and seemed to be "getting away with it" because he was teaching a course primarily aimed at philosophy students rather than students of experimental psychology. Perhaps had I stayed in the course, I might have let my Gel Mann amnesia kick in and enjoyed the rest of the course, but in that one lecture he really came off as someone who didn't entirely know what he was talking about. He instead hoped to "wow" philosophy students with "un-knowables" and "big questions". I dropped the course immediately.

[@sterlingherrera1792]

Pinker does that a lot. I mentioned elsewhere here in a different comment that his history books are awful because he does not do due diligence in researching the topic at hand. He is fairly uncritical of the sources he finds.

[@BobardeZanzibar]

Mine was listening to a podcast with Ezra Klein where he showed a profound misunderstanding of climate change politics by creating a boogeyman of "climate justice warriors" to blame the lack of progress on. He then proposed a number of business friendly, neoliberal proposals he was sure would get conservative support only for Ezra to tell him that these had been made multiple times and when called out on his CJW claims, he could not find a single legislator or political organization that subscribed to it.

[@censusgary]

I’ve read a couple of Pinker’s books, and they’re interesting in their own way, but he does seem pretty full of himself. His coverage of subjects, for the most part, doesn’t strike me as wrong so much as superficial. Pinker’s training is in paychology, and when he gets into areas like linguistics, history, and politics, he speaks with more confidence than he really should. As it happens, years ago I surveyed the literature on primate communication- specifically, on attempts to teach language to non-human primates and other animals. I found out a lot of interesting things, but I haven’t kept up with any new developments since then. So if I were going to give a talk or write a paper, I’d do a new survey first.

[@cheide]

It reminds me of something that's been informally called "engineer's disease" (not really exclusive to engineers, but it tends to be more common among us) where someone who's highly skilled and successful in a specific technical field starts thinking that they can just start applying their expertise to any other arbitrary field, often with disastrous results. One difference though would be that these cases tend to be fairly large leaps, like thinking you can jump straight from building computers to politics or economics, not just shuffling over to a different kind of science or engineering.

[@stevenjacobs2750]

Commonly called "Nobel disease" also

[@mikebarushok5361]

A very common example of this happening occurred during a brief period of time when I was working on cameras for some extra income. The owner, who was a 70 year old who had grown up in his father's camera shop gave me a camera with the attached ticket saying shutter speeds off and some speeds jammed. He explained that the customer was an aeronautical engineer who always tried doing his own repairs and who frequently put them back together incorrectly. So, the initial examination doesn't reveal anything obvious, probably going to find a bent shaft or a screw wrong length in a collar or similar. But, it was the first time I ever realized that many gear trains will fit together with everything literally reversed (if, as in this camera all the shafts are equal diameters). It then became the mystery of how any shutter speed was even close to proper and the repair took a long time due to alterations in various springs that had been done to get the reversed gear train adjusted close to working for a couple of settings.

[@cracknigga]

aka Dunning Kruger

[@monev44]

I realized what Kaku really was when he appeared on a show about how, "We design a real working lightsaber!" and he goes on to describe something that is both not a lightsaber and not even possible to build, let alone "working." Thus breaking 100% of the promises of the show.

[@peterl1365]

I remember that segment. Up until then, I thought he was a somewhat respectable source of knowledge.

[@gingerestkitten]

I recently saw something where someone made a flippant comment about not understanding something Physics related and Kaku blurted out “it’s how Star Trek Warp Drive works!” and proceeded to explain how dilithium crystals warp spacetime - I can’t help but Igon-problem this and point out that nothing he said is even close to correct physics even at a high school level nor was it Star Trek canon. Michio Kaku is, per previous video, a string theorist who got summarily kicked off doing string theory because string theory is wrong. Now he’s got nothing to do all day. This is how he fills his time. It’s sad. This isn’t outreach. If you’re meant to be “inspired” and google something you at least need to be close to the mark like phonetically close or just simplified. Michio Kaku does not do this, he just spouts shit - unverifiable, ungoogleable shit.

[@zeitgeistx5239]

Your a decade behind. Some white science nerds living in Japan realized he was full of horseshit when after the Tsunami he went on Japanese tv as an “American expert” to tell them that all of Japan was going to be irradiated. He tells you what the producers of the show wants to hear so he gets paid with more appearances.

[@HarryNicNicholas]

see, this is where being an artist has the advantage, i always though kaku was dodgy but i had to depend on intuition.

[@HarryNicNicholas]

@@gingerestkitten well, i think that's a bit harsh, he's a crackpot is all, they can't help it, he thinks he's "spreading truth" - he requires sympathy really.

[@Ave_Echidna]

I find it ironic that this term was coined by Michael Crichton, a man whose extremely loose use of science in media is very well documented.

[@_TeaMaster]

Didn't expect a TechnologyConnections reference 0_o. You can know you are talking to a person of high culture and refined taste if they are capable of taking out a bottle of good red wine and extracting an hour's worth of pure aesthetic pleasure from a in-depth video about heat pumps.

[@stephenwilhelm]

Even better, she used his music for the outro.

[@pacoalvarezlojo855]

I also loved Jenny's reference, that brownies video is the first one I watched from hers and it's actually pretty excellent!

[@LPMutagen]

I have a Sunbeam radiant control toaster because of technology connections lol

[@abacus707]

​@@LPMutagen now I boil water in electric kettle and feel good about it.

[@LPMutagen]

@@abacus707 me too but now I wonder what it would be like to have a 220v one.

[@haldanesghost]

This is a huge issue that you’re addressing. As an epidemiologist, the number of times I banged my head against the wall when reading journalistic output during the pandemic we just experienced was too damn high.

[@zchen27]

Oh, and the best part is most of the commentary seem to be opinion pieces of journalists whose only accredition seems to be their new site has labeled them as an "expert in X". Most of them invariably just post rehashed factoids and speculation from other journalists or from Quora.

[@dirkbester9050]

Imagine how we feel. We are told one can scientifically tell the difference between a bat fucking a pangolin in the wet market and a bat fucking a pangolin in the lab and then a scientist ... er "contracts" covid and then uh transmits it to a pangolin in the wet market, or whatever. I am not a biologist but I kinda want to know the miracle of science that distinguishes the cases. I feel like the fact that virii not only journal about their lives, keep the journals of all their ancestors, and we know how to read their secret journal language should have had extensive media coverage as well as a Nobel prize. Worse, the first time I asked during the pandemic I was suddenly a "conspiracy theorist", just for asking. But the next year I asked again, but it was Chinese New Year and suddenly a bunch of self identified virologists and biologists pop up and agree and say that it is quite possible for something to escape a lab and there are documented cases so "impossible" is a stupid adjective to use, and they have nfi how someone can claim they "just know" the difference between a modified virus and unmodified, and without the original ever having been found. Other than inserting a fish gene or something obvious like that I suppose, but again, if they don't then how can you tell?

[@PamelaContiGlass]

I am not a world renowned expert in any specific field, but there are areas where I happen to know more than the average bear. Whenever I read an article touching on those fields (tennis, motorcycles, how to make glass, playing guitar, and a dozen other topics) I invariably find glaring mistakes. Not convenient simplifications or understandable mistakes, but flat out "this is not how any of this works" errors. That makes me wonder about the rest of what I read to educate myself. I caught those errors because either theoretically or empirically I have the experience to catch them, but what about those topics I am interested in but I know nothing about? I wouldn't say it keeps me up at night, but certainly I should dig deeper and question things I often take at face value based on some clickbait article re-published by every news source.

[@Caitanyadasa108]

​@@PamelaContiGlass Yeah, in the early days of the internet everyone was like, "Wow, unlimited information on anything! Awesome! It's the democratization of knowledge!" It didn't take long to realize that yes, unlimited information IS awesome except for the fact that the percentage of false information increased as well and now and it can be insanely time consuming to find good information.

[@okuno54]

@@dirkbester9050 I'm not a biologist either, but I recall massive amounts of press coverage about the Human Genome Project. I don't know if it won a Nobel prize or anything, but I did hear that technological advances were made because of that project that enables the sequencing of all kinds of genomes with something like orders of magnitude less time and expense. I also know tangentially that genome sequencing of humans has helped trace human migration back (at least) thousands of years. So yeah, I'd probably start looking at genome sequencing; not sure how far along that is in the biology curriculum, though.

[@simontillson482]

I remember back in 2012 or so, Michio Kaka started appearing more and more on UK TV documentaries, on the BBC. It started out alright - he spoke about physics, and some of the more obvious and pop subjects like quantum indeterminism etc. Then it started to get strange. You could tell that he was winging it and it got exponentially worse over time. By 2014, they’d had enough of him and nowadays, the BBC won’t even mention him anymore. By the end, anyone who survived to age 16 without getting expelled could tell he was full of shit. Now, in 2023, I’d give him a crackpot rating of 98%.

[@bornach]

100% rating when he appeared in Channel 4 News a few weeks ago spouting that word salad about using a quantum computer to fact check the AI chatbots

[@off6848]

@@bornach Dude hasn't even taken philosophy 101. Can someone explain how a faster computing processor would suddenly know what is true (episteme)?

[@off6848]

@@andrewfarrar741 Yeah but doesn't the human brain have its own limitations on knowledge/epistemology? Why would it be better to emulate our brains? Couldn't we just ask a really smart human and then we go back to the same problem of incompleteness of knowledge.

[@chrisg6091]

I have a life long interest in all the sciences. I don't have high level qualifications in science. I just became aware of Michio Kaku clips here on YT and my BS gland immediately reacted. When I find myself listening to a person & I find myself going waaaaiiitaaammminute ... that's my BS gland kicking in. I can't imagine how hard life must be for folks without deeply inate scepticism , or is that common?

[@dragonmudd]

The new Michio Kaku is KZbinr Sabine Hossenfelder. As a physicist, I would recommend everyone stay away from her channel. She mixes in some hot garbage with her physics far too often, and you will be taught some wrong and untrue things if you watch her.

[@sebastianweigand]

This is one of my favorite science videos! It's remarkable how at a certain point, you realize that knowledge and intelligence are distinct from one another. And then there's grifters, crackpots, and those who are hawking something of, shall we say, "dubious quality". Thanks, enjoy a coffee on me!

[@jameshart2622]

That's not how *I* would describe eigenvalue problems. Sincerely, Mann-Gell.

[@WindsorMason]

Darn, you beat me to it! Hahah.

[@jameswong2201]

As a fellow Mann-Gellian, the setup for an eigenvalue problem requires 3 main components: 1) A field A field is a set where you can add, multiply, subtract and divide its elements with each other (e.g. rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers), whereby the usual laws of arithmetic apply (e.g. associativity of commutativity of addition and multiplication, distributivity etc.). A field always contains an additive identity (i.e. an element that behaves like 0) and a multiplicative identity (i.e. an element that behaves like 1), and every element aside from the 0 element has a multiplicative inverse. TLDR: It is an arena for doing simple arithmetic. 2) A vector space (over a field) A vector space is similar to a field, but adds "dimensionality". For example, the xy-plane is a two-dimensional vector space over the real numbers. Vector spaces "use" fields as "coordinates" (provided a basis has been established). 3) A linear map (from a vector space to itself) Generally speaking, a linear map (let's say T) is a function where its inputs and outputs belong to some vector spaces over the same field (let's say F) such that T(c*x) = c*T(x) and T(y+z)=T(y)+T(z) for every c in F and x,y,z in the vector space corresponding to the input. For example, the derivative operator (d/dx) is a linear map from the space of smooth real-valued functions to itself. To set up an eigenvalue problem, we first choose a linear map (T), of which must map from a vector space (V) over some field (F) to itself. Then, we ask what vectors (v) in V and what scalars (λ) in F result in the following equation to hold: T(v) = λ*v i.e. at which vectors does the linear map in question behave like simple multiplication by a scalar. Answering this question helps us uncover some useful information about T itself. For example, it can help us solve certain partial differential equations, and it can help us diagonalize certain matrices.

[@1729abhishek]

​ @James Wong I think there are two dimensions for Mann-Gellian-ism. While you have captured the pedantic dimension by introducing more terminology and abstractions that would scare away people without graduate degrees, I believe you slightly overdid it. The other dimension is far more important, where you focus on the shortcomings of the original description with as much snobbery as humanly possible -- think Draco Malfoy talking about Muggles.

[@XtecHubble]

That's not how I would have explained an identity matrix.

[@kucckumelon2837]

​@@jameswong2201Love this haha

[@Andlekin]

Your audio sounds great this episode. I think the volume is really good, and you're not peaking anymore. 11/10 audio!

[@acollierastro]

We did it folks!!

[@AndersHansgaard]

Yes! I was so happy right off the bat ☺

[@szaszm_]

At 44:43 the Michio Kaku clip is a bit too loud for me, the rest is great

[@NelsonBrown]

@@szaszm_ an easy way to tell if your Kaku clip is too loud is if you can hear him talking.

[@michaelblacktree]

@@NelsonBrown - _SAVAGE!_ 🤣

[@BradRau]

I have watched Michio Kaku change over time. I remember 10 or 20 years ago, some asked Kaku if Light Sabers could be real one day, and he said no, they are impossible. He got a lot of push back by his fan group because, well. . . light sabers are cool. Then 5 or so years later, he was asked the same question, and he said right now, we don't have the technology to make lightsabers, but they could be made by a plasma something or other. Then 5 or so years later, he was asked if lightsabers could be real, and he said yes, one day we could have lightsabers. He has been a pop physicist for so long and pandering to his audience that even a crackpot physicist like myself can tell. Also, Yes, I have a master's degree in guitar, and I watch many videos on guitar and music and go, hhhhmmmm????

[@fusiondog77]

The biggest problem with his take on light sabers is that he didn't seem to understand how they even worked in the lore of the Star Wars universe to even coherently discuss the physics of them and suggested telescoping ceramic tubes with perforations. Sure tell people a superconducting magnetic bottle containing a loop of plasma is impractical, but at least have some basics down before writing an article about it.

[@vita_pulchra_est]

Hey man, I dont know if anybody told you this yet but I'll be kind to tell you. You don't actually need both. You just need either a doctorate or a guitar to make barely any money.

[@norman_5623]

Good story. Often a good, reliable, accurate blog will be plodding along with a couple of thousand viewers. Then they try the anti-vax stuff, and their viewers jump up to hundreds of thousands. Flying saucers? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? More viewers. Hard for a blogger to resist.

[@justindie7543]

I loved this video. I'm a biologist and I became one because I had a fantastic high school biology teacher. Over the years in college I started to notice the lies he taught us, and it took some time to realize that they were convenient lies, and I think that it's part of what made him such a great teacher. Good teaching requires some lying to get the basic concept across, especially in the field of biology where there are exceptions to every rule.

[@thefiddleronthegreen]

What really illustrated the Mann-Gell amnesia issue for me, a mathematician that deeply loves linear algebra, was your description of eigenvalues. It gave me that exact "It's not wrong, but ehhh, that's not how *I* would talk about it" feeling. Which probably wasn't the point, but I really appreciate having an example that hits so close to home. It's definitely not just you that experiences this feeling.

[@justintroyka8855]

Yes, I'm also a mathematician and I felt the same way when she was doing the eigenvalue problem, before I caught myself doing exactly the thing the video is about. Glad I'm not the only one!

[@jacoblojewski8729]

Haha, same. It was good enough though, and made me self-consciously think about Mann-Gell amnesia :)

[@peterwilson8039]

As a physicist I tend to think of eigen values in conjunction with quantum operators. So it wasn't that her description was wrong, but rather, by talking about eigen vectors only in the context of matrices, she made it a little too limited in scope. I think she only did that because she knew that's how we would react.

[@cyborgninjamonkey]

@@peterwilson8039 I'm pretty sure some things she's said in other videos imply that she's also familiar with them from the quantum operator context. Might be wrong, but in the string theory video she was pretty relaxed talking about QCD and if I were studying stellar nucleosynthesis I'd definitely want to know QCD.

[@TheZectorian]

I want your explanation math man (or woman but I like illiteration)!

[@Narokkurai]

My friend who is very into W40K once gave a summary that started with, "The thing you have to remember is it's all one big kooky misunderstanding and if everyone just sat down for a weekend to talk things out there would probably be no war at all. BUT INSTEAD--"

[@acollierastro]

Well this sounds cool!

[@wombatkins]

Jesus W40K lore is just nutso

[@sandman1567]

The chaos gods wouldn't allow such a reasonable approach as they would probably implode or something, then there's the nids for who peace was never an option, additionally humanity hates everyone and everything including themselves, especially themselves In most cases.

[@mekelius]

Oh I do think there would still be WAAAAAAAAAAGH

[@avataryellow]

That's not how I'd explain it

[@JuanGonzalez-qr4pp]

I'm a mathematician and I never get tired of saying "I'm not a phycisist, but".

[@DavidChiappini]

I, too, am not a physicist's butt

[@simontmn]

I've noticed that stupid/assholish people focus on the "I'm not..." - eg I teach IP Law in the UK, so when discussing US Law I say "I'm not a US IP lawyer, but..." - I often get some stupid comments from non-lawyer Americans dismissing what I say because they're American & therefore obviously know better than me.

[@simontmn]

@@markykid8760 Well I *could* be a hack for all you know :D - I guess I was irritated at the assumption that living in a country makes you an expert on its legal system!

[@kurtbrinker5045]

As someone whose name also rhymes with stinker thank you for not reaching for the low hanging fruit. Your comedy has a high degree of comedic architecture and I appreciate that.

[@wisconsincows1212]

Jenny Nicholson's video on MLP is absolutely enthralling as someone with minimal knowledge on the subject. The whole piece has a remarkably cinematic arc for a KZbin video which primarily consists of one person sitting in her room. I got a very similar feeling from your String Theory video and have been hooked since. Great stuff as usual and it made me very happy to see you namedropping Nicholson.

[@eypandabear7483]

I watched several hours of Jenny Nicholson talking about a failed theme park I had never heard about, have zero interest in, and is located on a different continent from me. I was not bored for a single minute.

[@Endominius]

@@eypandabear7483 Me too. It was absorbing and I don't know why.

[@crapsquire]

Why is her newest video 7 months old? She seems very popular if not prolific.

[@eypandabear7483]

@@crapsquire Her videos tend to be very long, and probably take a lot of time to make.

[@Zimcrazedfangirl]

It’s not uncommon for Jenny to not post for a whole year. I also made the hop over here from Jenny to the String Theory video

[@DanielStaniforth]

Watching your videos over the last year has made me be extra careful when accepting information presented in KZbin videos. Except yours, I believe you 100% without question. I appreciate the clock in the background so I can view the passage of time. I make a game of looking for time jumps when filming got difficult. Michio Kaku impersonation was top tier.

[@SloverOfTeuth]

Of course there are those peer-reviewed papers that claim more than 50% of peer-reviewed papers are wrong. But I guess I should probably ignore them, because, based on their data, there's more than a 50% chance they are wrong ...

[@sntchk]

Reminds me of the time Neil deGrasse Tyson confidently claimed the spherical droid from the new Star Wars movies could never have propelled itself on sand, when in actual fact it had been a practical effect and very much did work.

[@thekidwhodraws]

Well Neil also likes to just say stuff

[@abacus707]

Tyson confidently claims many things. that pompous idiot.

[@jjmatejka]

I am sure he is a wonderful person, and I acknowledge he has probably done far more good than ill for society.... But I cannot stand that condescending twat as he speaks with absolute authority about everything. "Let me blow your mind with this fascinating fact! I know it will blow your mind because you are all stupid!"

[@euming]

I feel like Neil deSande Tyson might have been a better authority about spheres moving on sand.

[@alexandre3989]

@@euming Him, or maybe Neil deSert Tyson.

[@stevedelchamps5113]

You make some very good points. As a person with a PhD (Northwestern University, 1985) in experimental particle physics, I always try to qualify remarks I make about anything “deep” (e.g., general relativity, quantum entanglement, interpretations of quantum mechanics, details of the Big Bang model, etc.) when talking with non-physicists, pointing out that many such topics are highly specialized and therefore “understood” with varying levels of sketchiness even among professionals. The lay public has its work cut out for it when it comes to sorting the grain from chaff of in what certain well-meaning popularizers say and write. Good for you for spending part of your valuable time as a working physicist pondering such matters.

[@jonathancangelosi2439]

As a PhD candidate in applied mathematics, I am currently resisting the urge to 1-up your explanation of eigenvalues. Aargh this is too meta. Great video!

[@herrk.2339]

Yes, the X=0 instead of detX=0, and the misused (or unconventional?) "0 1 0 … n" notation when defining the unit matrix. But the little motivation at the end was accurate

[@yeetyeet7070]

please do. Do tell us something about eigenvalues

[@MrCmon113]

No. You're too lazy to write it down and afraid of getting corrected.

[@jonathancangelosi2439]

@@MrCmon113 No, I just figured putting in my own explanation would make my comment too long. Get over yourself. This isn't that deep bro.

[@jonathancangelosi2439]

​@@MrCmon113 I have nothing to prove to you, but I'll explain anyway because your comment just irks me so much. An eigenvector is a nonzero vector that, when a linear operator mapping from a vector space to itself is applied to it, yields a scalar multiple of that vector. That scalar multiple is called an eigenvalue. The classic eigenvalue problem in finite dimensions is to find all scalars lambda and nonzero vectors v such that A v = lambda * v, where A is a square matrix. For some linear operators, one can construct an eigenbasis, which is a basis consisting of eigenvectors. This allows one to express any vector as a linear combination of eigenvectors and then apply the linear operator to those eigenvectors by simply multiplying the eigenvectors by their respective eigenvalues. This can be used to greatly simplify the application of the operator to general vectors expressed in the eigenbasis by reducing the application of the linear operator to simple scalar multiplication. In finite dimensions, a linear operator for which there exists an eigenbasis is said to be diagonalizable, as one can express the application of the operator as a matrix of the form V D V^{-1}, where V is a matrix whose columns consist of eigenvectors and D is a diagonal matrix of the corresponding eigenvalues. One convenient feature of this eigendecomposition is that it yields an easy way to apply the linear operator multiple times. Applying it twice yields the matrix V D^2 V^{-1}, and in fact applying it k times yields V D^k V^{-1}. This makes certain operations like matrix exponentiation much easier. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I'm happy to take any corrections. Also, bite me.

[@zachbills8112]

An interesting irony is that Gladwell's dad was a math professor who has published dozen of papers on applied eigenvalue problems.

[@ZimoNitrome]

BUT MICHIO KAKU IS THE SMARTEST PERSON ALIVE!!!

[@kpv5619]

Holy shit @acollierastro you have really made it now

[@weightedsumwl]

the ZimoNitrome?

[@BennyKleykens]

Ieeeuwwww!

[@Copyright_Infringement]

"My lightsaber would be made of plasma" - Michio Kaku

[@shad6644]

I think he might be a crackpot.

[@ipz-DonIgnacio]

In Spain we have a derogatory term, "todólogos" -which would translate into something like "everythinglogists"-. With it, we refer to those people who are constantly on TV shows (news commentary shows mainly) talking about every thinkable topic, from criminology and law to meteorology and geology (we had recently a volcano eruption in La Palma, and the same people that commented about criminal law the day before were now giving their opinion on the situation).

[@aiocafea]

whenever the chance arises, i use linguistics youtuber K Klein's phrase 'professional opinion-havers' in linguistics there is a long-standing tradition of asking professional opinion-havers to do the work of linguists so it comes up way too often in my native language i've just heard the phrase părerologi, 'opinionologists' which i also find funny but definitely sounds more like someone who studies opinions, which is something you can actually be

[@JeraWolfe]

I love that it translates on Google into 'allologists'. That's a fun word to say.

In Turkish, we have "herbokolog", meaning "allshitologist"

[@Deipnosophist_the_Gastronomer]

As a plumber, it hurts me that you don't recognise that my expertise in plumbing entitles me to call myself a doctor. As for, so called, 'structural engineers' ... well you don't see them performing surgery, do you? Also, Igon values are legitimately a thing, anyone who watched The Real Ghostbusters knows this. Also, also, while I can't go into details, new advances in quantum plumbing are on the horizon. You will be amazed! Congrats on 50k subs 👍

[@viljamtheninja]

Can't wait to hear more about quantum plumbing and how my poop water is in two places at the same time or something.

[@brammeijboom1873]

@@viljamtheninja My shit just tunnels directly in the sewer, no plumbing needed.

[@shoo7130]

David Baddiel had a string of these on the TV show Monkey Dust, but I can't find a relevant clip on KZbin. Well, there's one but it's in Russian for some reason.

[@Maric18]

eeh :/ thats not howi would have explained it

[@PeteSchult]

Quantum plumbing? Let's hope that hidden variables is correct and that they stay hidden.

[@fiartruck0125]

I think there is hope for you to overcome "Mann-Gell". I studied Math long enough to get a Ph.D., and when Veritasium recently released a video about p-adic numbers, there were definitely parts where I said, "I wouldn't put it that way," but for the most part, I was just overwhelmed with, "Holy crap! Veritasium is making a video about p-adic numbers!! And it's mostly correct!!!" Also: I'm pretty sure your segment on Eigenvalues was meant to make me feel Mann-Gell, but I don't. No notes. You did a great job! (Even if it isn't how I would have done it.)

[@crapsquire]

I saw that veritasium episode. As a once-upon-a-time mathguy wanna be, I gotta say p-adic #'s are f'n cool. I think I'll go back and watch that again. Thanks for reminding me. 👍

[@DaIncredibleEgg]

Between this and the string theory video, I'm starting to see a pattern in "media darling scientists" where being charismatic and inspiring seems to be mutually exclusive with having enough professional integrity to stay in their lane.

has it been featured on the Rogan Exprnc? Safe to discard and amnesiasticise the whole thing.

[@ekki1993]

It's not that it is exclusive, but having professional integrity hampers how far you can go with your charisma. Mainly because science shouldn't be about charisma.

[@adammorrow5501]

This process is known as "de-Brogramming"

[@ColdHawk]

NdGT?

[@snozwanger760]

This is so good. So applicable in every day life, and how we feel the urge to correct one another. I loved the Technology Connections ending!

[@cantato2578]

There’s a passage about this in How to Win Friends and Influence People. The author talks about he corrected someone about the true origin of a quote at a party. They argue, and eventually find an expert at the party and ask him. He agrees with the other guy. Later, the author confronts him about it, since he is certain he was right. The expert says “Your correction was completely unnecessary, even if you were right. You were being combative for no reason. That’s not how you make friends.” (Roll Credits) The internet has made this problem so, so much worse.

[@Fly-the-Light]

Considering how faithless and shallow the expert is, it makes sense that the book is not titled "How to Keep Your Friends."

[@biercenator]

I'm not a trained programmer, but took the plunge into self-study with a close reading of the TeXbook. In the introduction, Knuth writes (paraphrasing from memory): "This book contains lies." He goes on to explain why, in very much the terms you present here. The TeXbook is designed to be read in several passes, with portions skipped in the earlier readings.

[@michaelmicek]

You must be joking. 😉 But seriously, it's cool when Knuth does this, both because he's upfront about it and because the authoritative truth is also in the book. His lies (and jokes) are deliberate and well-advised. Physics for babies, sure. Malcolm Gladwell, not so much. Gell-Mann amnesia is that you forget that all journalism is nonsense; Gladwell is in fact a journalist.

[@biercenator]

@@michaelmicek Sorry, I guess I didn't say it the way you would have done! I'll try harder next time. 😏

[@MrInsdor]

​@@andrewfarrar741the part about words is pretty much canon in linguistics

[@reav3rtm]

​@@michaelmicekThis is meta because TeX also needs to be processed in multiple passes.

[@burnstjamp]

I found your channel about a week ago and introduced your style to friends as "Almost identical to Jenny Nicholson, but for science." It was a huge shock to see her channel mentioned in this video lol

[@robertbrennan8187]

I was wondering if it would be impolite to mention that very occasionally Dr. C reminded me of Jenny Nicholson's voice/accent/something. I don't think Dr. Collier is doing an impression, but are they maybe from the same part of the country? To see Dr. C reference Jenny Nicholson makes me wonder if the universe is collapsing in on itself, a bit.

[@karmabeast]

not enough giant spider plushies (its Me, i'm the Igon Problem)

[@abacus707]

@@karmabeast I paused her video and stared at the book collection. it's a funny and interesting collection.

[@mehill00]

@@robertbrennan8187Oh I noticed immediately…I think it’s more than very occasionally. And I love it. It’s the cadence and tone, maybe. The “it’s fine.” Not sure if JN ever said that but she could have. It’s sarcasm without being afraid of being vulnerable. It’s having really smart points of view. If there was a third Jenny Nicholson / Angela Collier type out there I’m sure she could identify the commonalities in a clever and entertaining way.

[@_4le]

I love videos like this because it provides me more frameworks in which to “work my knowledge”. I hate videos like this because thinking gets hard, just when you think you’ve analyzed something - there’s always more to analyze. Thank you Angela.

[@Andlekin]

I'm so glad you found and enjoy Mr. Tech Connections. My wife and I simply love hearing about heat pumps, and forgotten electronics. Also, I described your channel to my wife as "Angry physicist yells at cloud". I hope that's alright.

[@unvergebeneid]

Same, but also Jenny Nicholson! KZbin is such a small place! 😄

[@zach.hanford]

What frustrates me about the Michio Kaku situation is that it's actively damaging. Knowing things? Fine. Not knowing things? Fine. Pretending that you know things that you don't? You're now depriving people of the actual answer.

[@CookiesRiot]

And pretending that plural entire fields agree with your baseless speculation, like when he refers to metallurgists and engineers under the blanket of physicists when he goes on TV to represent The Physicist Perspective™ on UAPs being super for sure definitely aliens - because he thinks he can interpret military targeting pod footage because he has a physics degree.

[@turtledruid464]

Absolutely love that you used Tech Connections' outro format for this video, really ties the whole thing together.

[@kylork0]

You're one of the very few (perhaps only) youtubers i find entertaining and interesting enough to watch their long-form rants all the way through.

[@fouadayoub1285]

I used to really enjoy Malcom Gladwell's books, until I found an Eigen Value problem on my own; in one of his books, he tries to make a point about the complexity of climate change, and specifically uses what an expert had told him about water vapor being a greenhouse gas. The conclusion he came to in that portion of the book was that because water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the nature of global warming is inevitable, as of course, we can't stop water vapor from being in the air, right? Well, a few years later, I take a class in college (as a gen ed) called Weather and Climate Change. We learned about this concept, how water vapor is in fact a greenhouse gas, but that it did not contribute to the problem; the lifespan of water vapor in the atmosphere is short, compared to the lifespan of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere. Water vapor is not, and was never the problem; the carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gasses with long-term atmospheric lifespans) is the problem. Gladwell was able to use a small piece of information only someone like an expert on the situation would know about, and misconstrue it to the effect of misinforming his audience. And this is, what I believe, where the Eigen Value problem becomes an Igon Value problem; sure, it's okay for a journalist to slightly misrepresent what an expert has to say on a topic, perhaps in an attempt to simplify it for their audience or simply for entertainment purposes (like what you mentioned in the video), but I personally think that it is a slippery slope. Misinforming the public in any way can be dangerous and harmful to society; this is how we get alt-right red-neck Americans who think vaccines cause autism or that the elections have been stolen. To your point earlier, I believe it is time scientists and experts took hold of the journalism; why not let an expert simplify what they have to say to the general public, instead of playing a game of telephone with a reporter who then tries to simplify it themselves? As per my earlier example about water vapor, my professor, an expert, was able to communicate to us in a simplified manner why water vapor being a greenhouse gas did not contribute to global warming. That explanation is incredibly valuable, far more valuable than the explanation Gladwell gave, or perhaps any journalist could have given. It comes with the authority of being spoken directly by the expert, not faux translated by a journalist. Anyway, great video!! I love your stuff.

[@Humorless_Wokescold]

You guys totally should. Retired colonels, generals and military theorists frequently make their way into/onto newspanels. No reason why scientists and engineers shouldn't too.

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

I think in this case the mistake is actually central to the point though, isn't it?

[@Crowley9]

@@Kagemusha7 In my semi-professional opinion as a historian, Pinker's historical "analysis" is at best abysmal, at worst he is deliberately cherry picking to arrive to the conclusion he wants. "If we look at a graph that shows from 1930 to today, the number of people killed in wars is on a drastic downwards trend! And if we look at a graph that starts from 1300, the number of people killed by disease is on a drastic downward trend!" If you take World War 2 and the Black Plague as your starting points, things look like they are getting better? Oh gee, you don't say?

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

​@Crowley9 But deaths from wars and disease have significantly declined?

[@severalwolves]

gladwell and pinker both ooze gross vibes. incidentally both were associates of a certain unsavory manhattan banker/socialite who died in police custody a few years ago. neither should ever be taken seriously.

[@TheJamesM]

I think this Mann-Gell effect doesn't just pertain to what you believe to be true, but also what you believe to be important. Any reasonably attentive person will eventually come to understand that works of fiction (or dramatisations) routinely contain technical and other factual inaccuracies. If they don't strike us as particularly egregious, most of us will be content to look past it as either an inconsequential mistake, or something justified by the needs of the work as a whole (be it in the service of art or clarity). But when it's something we have particular expertise or interest in, our tolerance for such considerations tend to be drastically different.

[@Laotzu.Goldbug]

Very true. at the end of the day it's always about intentional Consciousness and focus. one might even say that there's a deeper wisdom to realizing that you have inherently limited attention and energy and because of that you have to choose to give priority and importance to certain things, and accept mistakes or issues and other things, otherwise you can't really navigate the world. what you give that priority too, and how you decide what's important, I suppose always comes back to values

[@788home]

I agree - in fact, '3rd generation science fiction' like that of Heinlein, for example, doesn't use weird or advanced science - it uses the implicit "suspension of disbelief" that the audience brings, to allow a discussion of a new culture or lifestyle or belief without incurring the typical "that's not (can't be) true" backlash. Suspension of Disbelief is also an incredibly useful tool in solving very 'intractable' problems - it allows suspension of bias - without shutting down reason.

[@TheJamesM]

@@788home That's a really fascinating angle! I'd not heard that before, but it makes a great deal of sense.

[@richpryor9650]

The amazing irony about Kaku shilling Quantum Supremacy is that I distinctly remember watching one of his videos like 8 years ago claiming Quantum computing would never be a reality in our lifetime. He was he first person that made me skeptical of the field.

[@RolandoGarza]

How the turntables have... I hope we don't live to see the day where we get Kaku-flavored Quantum Water™sold on a post-truth, post-facts podcast .

[@mikeyjohnson5888]

Many of the PopSci communicators suffer from this issue. Its really frustrating seeing them change tune with the wind for seemingly financial reasons.

[@dangerousdays2052]

Kaku just says whatever brings him the most 💲💲💲

[@scotvaka1t375]

I've watched a few of your videos and I thought "I might like this youtuber" but once I heard you say Michio Kaku is dead to you, now I'm like yeah she's a real one. Subscribed👏👏👏🙌

[@FerousFolly]

the 40k bit was so good, literally the first line of your explanation hit me with the mann-gell amnesia. "board game? I wouldn't describe it as that."

[@davidm1926]

Miniature wargames aren't board games?

[@davidm1926]

@@absolutegarbage3654 No, because in poker there is no game relevance to the position of game items on a surface.

[@karmachameleon326]

@@davidm1926 Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Warhammer 40K is a board game. At first I thought, “obviously not a board game!”, then tried to list some reasons why it’s not a board game. Failed. You move pieces around the board, and roll dice to determine the result of the pieces’ interactions. Board game.

[@erinmoss2463]

I have to say that your Mann-Gell " hmmph :/" is such great representation for the reaction that I have when I read simplified medical/bio explanations. You've captured a feeling that I've never seen anyone else talk about and that I haven't been able to put words to for so long. I feel so seen

[@computerhelpcc]

When I was an engineering computer tech journalist, I routinely submitted my articles before publication to qualified engineers for comment. I did not want to waste the readers time. Summarize, clarify and entertain with some style if possible. Any decent journalist should expect their work to get cross-examined.

[@sulljoh1]

It sounds so reasonable - like why wouldn't they all do it?

[@ekki1993]

​@@sulljoh1Because journalism is a business, and yellow press sells.

[@BlueGiant69202]

This comment isn't far from the controversy in the scientific community over Science journal peer review processes and the controversy in Physics about String Theory found in the writings of Alexander Unzicker, Lee Smolin and Sabine Hossenfelder. One could even mention arxiv papers that don't follow a popular research path such as Timothy Boyer's papers on classical derivations of Quantum Mechanical equations or the papers of Professor Emeritus, Dr. David Hestenes, PhD.

[@edvogel56]

The Eigen value and vector explanation was very good. Thank you.

[@YuvalJacoby]

New video! You’ve quickly become one of my favorite KZbinrs. No idea how the algorithm was accurate for once. Thank you for your work!

[@renatanovato9460]

Same here

[@GD-tt6hl]

hot person + talk about anything = youtube algorithm is amazballs! sigh

[@michaelblacktree]

This channel just started showing up in my recommended videos. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. 😛

[@christopherkelley2061]

I now assume it was from all the technology connections video I watched. It was like this you watched a 2 part series on dishwashers. Probably this is his type of content.

[@austinchasteeny]

This video spoke to me so hard - I was going to type out a comment about how I can't enjoy the rock climbing subreddit anymore because I end up thinking "eehhh not really what I'd say" and catch myself being annoying to tons of top level comments... but then you said rock climbing and I felt so clocked lmao

[@mcpa2991]

Many years ago I worked for a government health stats org. Everyone I worked with were passionate, committed, and ruthlessly pragmatic. They would talk about an interesting trend, then a dozen caveats that mean we need to be careful about the conclusions we draw. Anyhow, every time they published a report the lead researcher would do an interview, at about 5am, with the national broadcaster (which is usually fairly good, facts-wise). As an early riser I would hear the first run of the interview at 6am. It would run to about 5mins. At 7am they would run a 30 second quote wrapped in a "story". From about 8am onward they would run a "story" with a single quoted sentence to support it. There was no maliciousness or malfeasance involved but it was impossible for anything that cut down to be accurate or correct - even before the journalists comprehension factors in..

[@italucenaz]

thank you for thaking the time and effort to explain, for 8 min straight, what something 90% of people never heard of with a whole demonstration to hope a fraction of them can follow, full respect

[@Skibbityboo0580]

I have always wanted to ride on Michio Kaku's shoulders with my arms stuck out making noises like an airplane. I am a 43 year old man.

[@nomchomsley854]

Something tells me that, were this to happen, Michio Kaku would be the one making the airplane noises.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Mikio Kaku is the airplane, he should be making the noises. I otherwise support this endeavor

[@xelectrowolfx]

Made me f'ing laugh out loud, if I was drinking water rn itd be everywhere. Thanks for that moment

[@AnnieRegret]

❤

[@Lerithan]

Also: what do we call it when someone *thinks* they know a lot about a subject and has this same reaction but they really don’t know that much? Dunning-Kruger-Gell-Mann effect? [Edit!!] That’s what I get for commenting midway thru the video, she answered the question. The answer is “a Mitchio Kaku”.

[@jameshart2622]

Average KZbin commenter.

[@Lerithan]

@@jameshart2622 Not what I would have said.

[@nocakewalk]

Ackshully I think Gell-Kruger is the correct term.

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

I could answer you but I was told to not tell my name to strangers on the internet

[@parrampampam]

@@nocakewalk I know you're joking, but just in case some don't know: Gell-Mann was one person, while Dunning-Kruger is named for two different people (it's not a hyphenated lastname)

[@MrPughg]

I liked the Technology Connections homage at the end. One thing I struggle with WRT the Mann-Gell problem is differentiating between a harmless simplification for a general audience (no, the Bohr model of the atom isn't correct, but it's good enough for most people) and a simplification that eliminates crucial detail (nooooo don't make policy based on bad data!!!). Everything feels like the latter, even though it's usually the former.

[@DanteJohnson]

I was surprised how far I had to scroll to see somebody acknowledge the Technology Connections homage. I also liked it.

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

When it started I thought "is she doing bloopers as a Technology Connections reference? Of course not." and then the music came on lol

[@CookiesRiot]

Admittedly, I've started to see any simplification or slight misnomer as massively problematic... But that might be due to being in a nation (and a state within that nation) which is attempting to, for example, delete evolution from school curriculum because people have taken "DNA code" to mean it's literally a hand-made programming language written by Yahweh, human sex is a binary based on presence/absence of a Y chromosome, etc.

[@thinkfact]

I've been thinking about this stuff for years and it's always interesting to listen to other people talk about the same sort of stuff. Throughout most of my video making career I went about adding a lot of text to my videos basically in order to deal with the potential of someone saying "actually" to me when I try to explain things simply. The whole field of science communication has become so much work when you cater to those people. But at the same time there's so many people who faked it till they make it and really are uninformed and it's sometimes can be difficult to tell the two apart.

[@acollierastro]

I do think it hits a little different when you make things.

[@epenies]

I would say the issue is that we all view the world subjectively, there will always be an “actually.” It’s still an uncomfortable feeling when people do that when you’re the one creating the content. I’ve also seen people in the same field go “actually” simply because the scope of their expertise is very limited. For example, a clinical psychologist with a deep research background on neuroscience will have more nuanced perspectives and explanations that might come across as “off” by other people in the psychology field (which is infinitely broad). The more you dig into the rabbit hole the deeper it gets. There is I think a practical threshold where we can say “this is right and that is wrong” but oftentimes it’s all subjective and someone’s misinfo might be actual info to someone else of comparable expertise depending on their perspective, unconscious biases, etc. I would love to say “reality is all an illusion” but given the context of this topic I can think of countless “actually’s” to that statement even if it was meant as a manner of expression not to be taken literally. At some point you realize that everything has so much potential nuance and complexity that you might just get paralysis and simply not voice any opinions… I don’t know ish anyways, maybe someone will read this and say “what utter bollocks, verbose nonsense, etc”

[@drewpy14]

@@epeniesi love overwhelming myself with hopeless questions too

[@postdebutwinnie]

There's those polyglot videos of someone who speaks a bunch of languages to strangers. When they speak my language I often think "wow their accent is pretty bad!" but when they speak all the other languages some part of my brain is still like "sounds legit!"

[@SECONDQUEST]

Kaku is one of the people I heard a lot about growing up in the 2000s, but was never mentioned once I got further into science, past the history channel lmao

[@fabiopaolobarbieri2286]

Oh. The Margaret Mead of science. (Don't mention Margaret Mead among anthropologists, you will embarrass everyone.)

[@KevinJDildonik]

Gladwell is just as bad. Look up anything you like that Gladwell did. I guarantee. Experts will say he's wrong on his central point. Like 100% of the time. To the point that I think Gladwell knows and gets off on it. Versus Kaku, who is just desperate to get his name in the paper so Kaku says whatever wild crap he feels like to make headlines. Gladwell doesn't make up nonsense, he just lies about his research for some reason that I wish was only between him and his therapist rather than him and millions of readers.

[@inkasaraswati7625]

I'm just glad someone with some degree of knowledge dismissed Michio Kaku because he never passed the vibe check for me, I always thought he was a sensasionalist

[@stupidas9466]

@@KevinJDildonikGladwell did a bit on months of the year hockey players were born and how it significantly affected their progress and success. Without going into detail, he did "play by play" of a two Major Junior hockey teams, substituting the player's names with the month they were born in…"December passes to July, who skates by November and the puck is taken away by October…” I was amazed, it fit his hypothesis perfectly, and seemed to make perfect sense in hindsight…brilliant! I got the birth dates of all players in the league just to see how widespread it was and…WTF? There were a grand total of TWO teams in the league that had a large proportion of players born in the quarter (three month period) that fit into Gladwell's narrative, with 3,2, and 2 teams with a proportion of players born in the other quarters, respectively. The rest of the teams in the league had no discernible difference. Gladwell had just so happened to pick two teams, from a certain league that fit. Cherry picking data is not new, but going to the lengths he did to even find the cherry shows how purposefully deceptive he was being. Postscript…i looked into his other previous claims more closely and time and again the same thing occurred. Whenever i see one of his books in a bookstore, i surreptitiously move them into the fiction section.

[@bigdog91paper]

​​@@inkasaraswati7625I think the right word is "futurist". He just thinks about things in the future. He's more like a philosopher than a scientist, in a sense.

[@Lyra0966]

An ex friend of mine explained how he enjoyed responding, "Dr arsehole, to you" if/when someone referred to him as "an arsehole". Some time after, my ex friend was badly losing a debate between himself on one side and me and another friend on the other. His frustrated response, "I've got a PHD in this subject", only served to confirm in my mind that he was a complete arsehole.

[@Ben-kv7wr]

I was talking abt evolution with someone and how we mischaracterize it as linear and stuff and they said that michio kaku said humans have stopped evolving and I was like “I don’t really care what a physicist has to say abt biology” glad to see he does it with other fields he isn’t in…

[@willowarkan2263]

oh that is painfully wrong, the quote not your statement.

[@abandoninplace2751]

Kaku went off the rails at least 20 years ago, even while talking about stuff somewhere near his own bailiwick. Your videos continue to be awesome.

[@theq4602]

he was off the rails from the start, he got people to protest the cassini flyby of EARTH because of its radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing just a few kilograms of plutonium 238, the thing is cassini had to do that flyby for a gravity assist.

[@pablolichtig2536]

I really loved the homage to technology connections at the end. I love this channel, and I also love Alec and his

[@reverendjuan9121]

Ditto! I entered the comments section to be the first to point this out. I agree 100%

[@Exiled_Rouge]

I have been watching all your videos while working this week from my home office TV. As soon as you said, "Warhammer 40k", my brow arched and I did a 180 in my chair. Instantly, I "hrmmph" the very notion before you had gotten it all out.

[@almightysapling]

That sudden "oh yeah this is a science channel, should I explain when an eigenvalue is?" I god damn love you. You have quickly become one of my favorite science Tubers over the span of a few short days. Please keep up the excellent work.

[@potzdonner]

Michio Kaku has a talent to say things that sound interesting and appealing. But with no scientific depth at all. He is sort of a grifter, I thought that for a long time, very glad you did this video about it. And I love Technology Connections too!

[@andrewphilos]

I remember seeing a book like those "astrophysics for babies" books, only for Bayesian probability calculation. For me, it was the opposite problem: the book went REALLY in-depth into how to calculate the Bayesian posterior, and my thought was, "Ain't no baby understanding a conditional probability." XD

[@villentretenmerth11]

Bayesian Baby Babble!

[@JohnAutry]

It’s this idea of disprution…could set humanity back much further if not checked

[@JohnAutry]

But recognition is the worst and first step.🟥🟫🟧🟪🟦🟨🟩

[@andrewphilos]

@@JohnAutry sorry, disruption? I don't follow.

[@JohnAutry]

I think people failing to acknowledge general data as sufficient to be disruptive in the extreme

[@stuartdryer1352]

I've never heard of that concept before. Now I will try not to forget it. Thanks for this video.

[@denehoffman]

Thank you, as a fellow physicist, I've been telling people about Kaku for years now. I remember once hearing that the other professors at CUNY absolutely hate him, and I'd believe it. It really is sad that he started out being such a well-respected science communicator (I owned and loved Hyperspace as a kid) and has chosen to sell out. The only reason I can possibly think of for this is that he decided he couldn't solve string theory's problems himself but knows that if a theory of everything is found, the public will look for another Einstein to guide them into the paradigm (and he wants to be it). And I guess he also figured he might as well apply that philosophy to every other field that deluded news teams will have him on to talk about. It's sad to think that if you asked someone in the general public to name an important figure in quantum computing, they'd have a nonzero chance of saying Michio Kaku, a guy who has provably contributed absolutely nothing to the field.

[@johnmcaraher]

I used to teach physics at a liberal arts college with a major donor-funded lecture series. They'd bring in big names - Gorbachev, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton. Well one year they decided to pay Kaku a huge honorarium, and colleagues in other departments, leading into the talk, were like, "You guys must be so excited, your discipline is getting its moment, how did you pull this off?" And we said nobody consulted us and we're really not all that excited about it. The day came. We dutifully showed up for his reception but let the students chat him up. Then he gave a lecture based on whatever book he was shilling - I think he babbled nonsense about uploading our brains, that sort of thing. And then our non-physics science colleagues we in our faces about it - "What the hell was that? The man has no idea what he is talking about!" Hey - don't blame us! Kaku mainly reinforced every negative stereotype about physicists speaking with absolute confidence -and ignorance - in areas beyond their expertise.

[@bornach]

I think the KZbin community has a term for when a content creator will talk about whatever gives them the most exposure. Kaku is just another example of "Audience Capture"

[@off6848]

@@johnmcaraher He's a "science popularizer" which really just means a shill for whatever and whoever is paying him to sound smart.

[@RFC3514]

Worth mentioning that "Gell-Mann amnesia" is a manifestation of a phenomenon also known as "Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy". Also, I believe a fundamental law of the universe is that whenever you organise a conference or start filming a documentary about any subject vaguely related to science (i.e., maybe someone measures something at some point), the probability of Michio F. Kaku materialising out of nowhere and just starting to talk nonsense is statistically indistinguishable from 100%.

[@crapsquire]

😂😂😂😂

[@FlorianBaumann]

Michio would say, 102 %, and all it being accurate.

[@Will140f]

One of my favourite videos of the past few years is Michio Kaku feebly attempting to “debate” Roger Penrose and Sabine Hossenfelder regarding multiverses and the veracity of string theory. Basically, he does such a bad job at defining what he’s even defending that it seems like a comedy skit at some points.

[@RFC3514]

@@Will140f - Yeah that one is a classic.

[@L3X1N]

So... Kaku is an anomalous entity... I need to make some phone calls.

[@lordgemini2376]

Your videos really give off a KZbin in 2009 vibe. You've become my favourite on this site :)

[@joshuaolian1245]

i love technology connections! he’s so great and it makes me so happy you enjoy his content too!

[@brandongerbig1643]

Just found you recently, you communicate complex ideas at a layman level so well. I hope you continue making videos because I'm really enjoying them

[@BrainsZoinick]

Funny thing, actually Michio Kaku was in my uni last year, to do a sort of talk with physics students and I was asked if I could prepare a question to ask him. I didn't know about his hurricane interview (disguisting) and hadn't been interested in him for quite awhile, but he was one of my inspirations to go into physics via string theiry. And funny thing, he STILL shills string theory. To this day, to an audiance of physics students from bachelors to phd, he talked about string theory. When I asked him about what was his favourite subject to teach students was or something like that, he just started talking about wormholes and string theory :D. Like every scientists I talked to after the event said he has gotten of the rails and just talks about whatever.

[@slyfox6996]

Halfway through the explanation of eigenstuff problem I thought to myself unironically "well yeah I mean that's true but its a bit more than just.... Holy shit the thesis was spot on." I don't know how I've never noticed that reflex, and now I'll never be able to un notice. This is gonna make me so much more grounded and polite...

[@O0kalā]

Layman here. Right after high school, I read Kaku's 'Hyperspace' when it came out. It led to my fascination for physics. All these years later, I got over String Theory, became a Joe Rogan fan, and have watched nearly all of your videos. This one really cracked me up. Thanks.

[@paxardens3505]

I watched Kaku give that interview while sitting in my aunt's living room in Nebraska, having a full-on breakdown as rain began to wash half my life away. Bc my wife and I had driven up there...from HOUSTON... to go to a concert and spend a weekend with my family up there. When we left, Harvey was still about a day out from its initial landfall much further south, and I was a bit worried bc I knew there was a front developing that could maybe shove it up the coast, but I did NOT expect the full stall it pulled over Houston. But by the morning of that segment, it was becoming clear things were not gonna go well for my city, AND the damn storm had already claimed lives and utterly devastated one of the most amazing parts of the state. I was furious enough watching it live, and then by that night there was a foot of water in my childhood home. Where my wife and I lived with my parents and our now thoroughly traumatized cats. We lost so goddamn much, and his face has made me sick ever since.

[@bronzedivision]

I feel so sorry for the generation plus of people who have been subjected to Micho Kaku and often still think he's worth listening to. I was lucky to be inoculated against him in high school after I'd only seen a few of his documentaries because a teacher I trusted gave me one of his books. And I read as much of it as I could stand but the density of bullshit was just too much and all really obvious crap too. But most people still see him all the time, he's the Nick Cage of science documentaries never turning down a role. As such he's a familiar face and has the advantage of truth by repetition in the minds of far too many people.

[@magickmarck]

Truth by repetition doesn't apply to a cartoon character.

[@mk1st]

"he's the Nick Cage of science documentaries" hahahaaaaa!!

[@RFC3514]

The difference is Nicholas Cage is generally the best thing in bad movies while Michio Kaku is the worst thing in the stringy multiverse.

[@dionysianapollomarx]

I’m among these victims. Grown out of it thankfully.

[@DVSnark]

He’s on ancient aliens. Regularly. That he lends his pedigree to that psy-ops quasi religious bunk is enough to make it obvious that he’s just a bs slinging ‘science explainer’ actively making people stupid, and he knows better; he’s a grifter.

[@kcottone]

You're quickly becoming my favorite science youtuber. I also watch Dr. Becky's videos on astrophysics but your style and sense of humor resonates more with me. Keep up the great work!

[@DahVoozel]

Gell-Mann Amnesia and Gell-Mann Recollection seem to bee how certain famous podcasters make bank.

[@reinseiun]

I'm 39, and I remember when Micho Kaku was on the Discovery Channel all the time in the late 90s and early aughts talking about clearly impossible imaginary tech. Teleporters, lightsabers, time travel, FTL... You said he's gone off the rails - He's been off the rails for the last 20 years.

[@ninadgadre3934]

Kaku is a flashy science salesman, not (or no longer) an educator. I sometimes find it unfair that he gets to share stage with legit scientists at the forefront of research, when so many more capable people could have contributed better to the discussion than Kaku’s musings. There’s one of the recent “future of physics” or so panel discussion where folks like Sabine Hossenfelder completely destroyed Kaku’s incoherent babble at every occasion, and he kept rambling on. I kinda find him annoying now, and that’s horribly sad cuz he was an inspiration to me when I was young. Hearing him speak about whatever astrophysics is out there made me interested in these things, and actually nurtured a scientific spirit inside me. Now I’m no scientist, I’m a humble engineer, and Kaku certainly knows more about everything than I do about anything. But even then, pretty much every time he speaks these days, it’s incoherent BS. I hope it is an old-age-related issue and not an integrity issue, cuz it feels bad man, feels bad to watch him become this way.

[@hans-joachimbierwirth4727]

You misspelled born. He's born off the rails, not been off the rails :/

[@spase667]

In my limited experience publishing academic papers, the Mann-Gell effect can also happen with peer-reviewers. I do mathematical modeling of biological systems, so my work necessarily consists of gross oversimplifications of hugely complex situations. We justify our simplifications because they make large scale computations with anatomical complexity tractable, but it inevitably means that when we get a review back saying “you need to account for this and that,” we need to communicate very clearly what is beyond the scope of our approach. If we couldn’t set hard boundaries on what we will and will not simulate in our model, nothing would get done!

[@acollierastro]

“Listen I know the experts in your field have been working on this problem for 15 years but is it possible that I (an expert in a completely different field) have solved it in twenty seconds by coming up with the most obvious suggestion?” I talked a little about this type of scientist in my glass video. Two days into a pandemic and all the physicists in the world are like “Ahem…actually I can read exponential plots perhaps I can be of use here?” And sir this is a Wendy’s.

[@yaroslavsobolev9514]

One of the journals wisely shows a memo about Mann-Gell to all reviewers. As a reviewer, you've got to read it before you're allowed to review anything. They phrase it like: "please respect the creative and intellectual freedom of the authors, they should be allowed whatever quirks and idiosyncrasies they prefer". A good point, I think.

[@maxm2639]

​@@acollierastrothis made me laugh out loud. Thanks!

[@empty5013]

this is also a thing in code reviews during software, in fact often it's a huge problem where people will focus on nitpicky little things like oh you named this variable wrong or oh you should leave a comment, while ignoring the fact that the code you are reviewing as a whole is patently wrong! I'm guilty of it myself but I think part of growing in my skills as a reviewer is knowing which battles are worth it and which are just stupid nitpicks or these newfangled so called mangills.

[@volbla]

xkcd 793

[@BramCohen]

As an expert who has gotten quoted in the media a lot it took me a long time to get over that simplifications are not actually wrong, particularly when they give the caveat that they're simplifications. What matters is that the reader gets the right impression. It's very easy to give a completely technically correct explanation which is over the audience's heads and gives them the wrong impression, and usually something which optimizes for giving the right impression will say something which is at least a bit simplified.

[@jjmatejka]

The danger rarely lays in whether the impression is right or not. Badly done simplification encourages readers to think they understand something in an authoritative manner. There is no law that states every complex and nuanced subject must be communicated to society. The media demands concise sound bites. Some things should not be condensed into sound bites, regardless of how noble the intention. When you choose to speak to the greater public about your area of expertise, you carry some of the responsibility for what happens if it is communicated badly. I have an area of expertise that is useful to a huge percentage of society. There are very few conclusions in my area I would be comfortable condensing into a short news segment.

[@BramCohen]

@@jjmatejka You're free to refuse to talk to the media and let them get it completely wrong

[@off6848]

Nah simplex explanation is the best form of explanation, but it's not simplification, its incompleteness that is happening here, such as in the airplane analogy. Its not a simplification to say that gravity causes things to fall its an incompleteness due to focusing in on the airplane as the sole subject. The airplane goes down due to gravity but the air underneath the plane will disperse upwards and outwards, also due to the effect of gravity on the plane so its incomplete to just say that gravity makes things fall down.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

"Don't call anyone besides medical doctors a doctor" is common practice in hospitals. There was a controversy a few years ago where some "nurse practicioners" started calling themselves "doctor" to patients. They argued that 1) they had a doctorate of nursing, 2) they were able to prescribe medication - therefore it was acceptable for patients to think of them as doctors. I have no idea what ended up ended up happening with it.

[@thepapschmearmd]

The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) was made solely to be able to call themselves doctor without actually going to medical school. I still have patients who I get who said their “doctor” told them something and then I look and it’s a nurse practitioner. Sometimes it’s because the NP is introducing themselves as a doctor, which is wildly inappropriate. Sometimes the patient just doesn’t realize they aren’t seeing a doctor, which is also inappropriate because anyone taking care of patients should be clear about their role. When you say or let someone think you’re a doctor, that comes with the implication that you’ve had a certain amount of training. So when you’ve actually only done maybe masters level work at most and a couple hundred hours of shadowing and then got granted independent practice through your extremely powerful and ego and financially driven lobby, you should probably let people know you aren’t actually a physician.

[@stephangg000]

​​@@thepapschmearmd DUDE YES. As a current med school student, to see this misrepresentation of who is and isn't a doctor is frankly terrifying. This isn't to say that ARNPs and PAs aren't vital to our system, but they should be held to a standard of clear and concise communication. If a patient calls them doctor they should be obligated to correct that, not doing so is a gross mischaracterization of their level of training.

[@Guynhistruck]

In hospitals it makes perfect sense. There is actual risk of actual life and limb. It's situationally practical and appropriate. On a college campus, however, that would be entirely impractical and incredibly confusing. Also absolutely strange as hell to have one profession attempt to universally claim usage of a word that has been applied differently for hundreds of years without serious confusion. I understand the idea, and I'm not going to go around calling myself "doctor" because I have a JD, even though it would likely benefit me financially and professionally if I were to do so. It's just a weird power move that comes off as ego-driven. All that said, I think it's the responsibility of good journalists to be honest about their gaps in understanding on subjects outside their expertise and seek out the kind of corrections discussed early in the video. It's also absolutely imperative for them to be very cognizant of how they frame the qualifications and expertise of the people they interview or reference. Much like people are so often mistaken about the legitimacy of pundits and their opinions, because when they're on op-ed style "discussion" shows, the pundits are framed as a complementary pair with actual experts, creating false equivalency of understanding and expertise between the two. That's not to say experts are always right nor that pundits can never have opinions on things they didn't focus in on specifically for years; but the odds are essentially 100% that when you have to decide who to trust between two people you don't know on a TV show, you should pick a documented expert in a field over just about anyone else they might have on beside them. Also, the weird disregard of the importance of expertise is incredibly bothersome to me. Healthy skepticism is awesome. Assuming anyone portrayed as an expert to be a snobby elitist who "doesn't know how real life works" or whatever... That's just straight up not ok.

[@17thknight]

​@@stephangg000 as a sonographer, I'm going to raise my eyebrow thusly 🤨 at the assertion that mid levels are important to medicine. As gay as I can tell, they're a way for a hospital to pay people less to do a significantly worse job than a doctor while charging the patient the same amount of money. Seeing orders from NP's and PA's is the fastest way for me to know that the order is nonsense, possibly not even the right anatomy, and that they'll have to Google anything I describe to them

[@davidbrook7623]

Curiously, in the UK, physicians are referred to as Doctor, even though they may not have a doctoral degree. In the UK you can go into medical school from high school (it's a 5 year program). No less rigorous than the US, just that there is no 'pre-med' degree. Since it is a first degree it is not a doctorate.

[@volgg]

I used to really admire michio kaku back in the day when growing up, but you basically nailed it and summarized my thoughts on his work as of late.

[@josedelnegro46]

Three Mile Island made him famous. String Theory made him infamous.

[@Wooferoni]

He is a celebrity whore and I pay no heed to anything he says.

[@system0fadowner251]

As much as I've moved long past listening to him in a serious way, ill always thank him for being one of the primary communicators that really inspired a lifetime interest in physics as a kid.

[@Nvenom8.]

I think you're spot-on about the compulsion to correct others or provide clarity. It's kind of neat that we have an inbuilt compulsion to push for truth, clarity, and understanding. That kind of curiosity and willingness to share is how humanity has made it to this point. We're compulsive learners, but arguably more importantly, compulsive teachers.

[@Cuttlefish2202]

This is awesome. I know I'm late to the party here, but there's a fun little irony to that Pinker/Gladwell drama. In 2016 Nassim Taleb, a statistician in Gladwell's article, co-authored a paper attacking Pinker's statistical analysis of violent conflicts and saying that Pinker got a nonsense result because he didn't know enough about statistics.

[@robjohnston1433]

I want to thank you very much! I am just an MD who wishes he had done Physics, but noticed -- years ago -- that what Michio Kaku he says on any given topic is, usually, utterly wrong! Since he is "acclaimed" and a talking head in just about every TV prog about space, physics, science, technology, etc, I half assumed it was ME who was misunderstanding an issue. Recently, however, I have noticed some brave individuals, such as yourself, calling out Kaku as an ignorant self-publicist! When one steps out of ones own area of expertise, indeed it does become more difficult to spot a fraud. But I am very glad that I have -- at least -- been right about Michio!

[@SphereS7]

I remembered this video after watching a documentary where Lawrence Krauss "predicts" that "AI is going to make human interactions irrelevant" and that a solar flare is going to destroy the internet and society by 2025. All with that grim, creepy smile on his face.