What's up with Sklansky and physicists?

[benkahuna]

The man sure seems to love physicists...

Why does Sklansky seem to view physicists as the smartest scientists and the only reasonable authorities for understanding the universe?

Why not mathematicians? Many of them understand things that no one else does and it is often a pure talent field. You can't succeed unless you're brilliant. Hard work isn't even close to enough. And Sklansky himself is a mathematician. These are his people!
Why not engineers? They take physics and apply it to solve daunting real world problems.
Why not chemists or biologists? They work in more complex systems with emergent properties dependent upon not just physics, but to the new rules present in their own fields as well. Their disoveries often have more real world application to benefit humanity than physisicists.
When concerning the nature of reality and the possible existence of G-d, does he mean astrophysicists?
Why not medical researchers and public health researchers that may benefit all mankind to have a happier healthier life?
Why not specifically nanotech researchers within physicists that could conceivably make humans immortal?
Why not philosophers, political activists, or political leaders that strive to solve problems of human interactions and social injustice?

Seems like he loves the problems they solve that have "a single answer," perhaps because that's the area in which he's skilled and how he may define intelligence? Does he reqret not going into physics? Did he fall in love with a physicist as a youth and like Humbert Humbert have his love taken from him creating an unhealthy obsession with physicists? All jokes aside, I'm curious.

It seems like a pretty strong bias and that it's unwarranted. Irrational even!

So Sklansky, what's the story? Where's the love for the rest of the scientific community, do gooders, and smart people outside of physics?

Because physics is the only true science. Everything else is stamp collecting. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] (this was on the wall in my faculty at uni)

While mathematicians may be smart, they're little more than logicians. Physicists attempt to answer the broader questions of what actually exists and how and why it functions, whereas mathematicians focus on expressing the 'how' in logical terms. And developing methods for reducing the 'how' to something usable.

That's the pure side of it, in reality most mathematicians are smart logicians who crunch numbers and work on developing computer systems.

[benkahuna]

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Because physics is the only true science.

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Heh.

You physics types have it easy. You can come up with exact, clear equations to describe what happens in your world. In biology, it's all about protein x, combining with protein y, in the ER allows the the attachment of trace element Q, but only in the pH range s.t-s.w in the presence of magnesium...

Or, at least, it used to be like that until you figured everything out. Now you just make up weird particles with or without mass and give them funny names. :P

[xniNja]

I don't have degrees in either mathematics nor physics, but have studied both.. my father has a PhD in physics, and I may be somewhat biased, but it seems relatively simple to me. Physics describes the laws of existence, the rules we live and die by... a similar claim can be made about mathematics, but it wouldn't be accurate.

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You physics types have it easy. You can come up with exact, clear equations to describe what happens in your world

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Yep, and then get the mathematicians to solve them. So obviously, it's a smart choice of profession. Plus, it's a poorly kept secret that we get these equations out of the bible, so it's not like we have to derive them or anything.

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Everything else is stamp collecting.

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In biology, it's all about protein x, combining with protein y, in the ER allows the the attachment of trace element Q, but only in the pH range s.t-s.w in the presence of magnesium...

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QED?

[kidcolin]

I'm an engineer. We normally don't come close to physicists. Most brilliant engineers are either physicists or chemists in disguise. They straddle the line between theoretical research and practical application. The research oriented engineers usually are pretty cool people.

In the same vein, physicists are just more interesting than mathematicians. They're not all bores, but most of 'em are. Whereas a lot of physicists have this crazy zany interesting side to them.

[David Sklansky]

The best one are all brilliant and the average ones are usually smarter than all but the best in the other fields you cite. But I realize that a top Phd in Math, Chemistry, or even Economics, from Harvard, is smarter than any physicist who graduated from wherever Tom Weideman did.

[benkahuna]

So, it's just valuing brilliance?

[ QUOTE ]
While mathematicians may be smart, they're little more than logicians. Physicists attempt to answer the broader questions of what actually exists and how and why it functions, whereas mathematicians focus on expressing the 'how' in logical terms. And developing methods for reducing the 'how' to something usable.

That's the pure side of it, in reality most mathematicians are smart logicians who crunch numbers and work on developing computer systems.

[/ QUOTE ]

*lol*

Thank you for making my afternoon a little brighter.

Your conception of what mathematicians do is... interesting. You should read A Mathematician's Apology. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

(my background: I was a grad student in mathematics... currently taking some time off due to illness)

[Ezcheeze]

That's what the man said...