Information chaos

    The purpose of this post is to make you think about the existing “varieties” of information surrounding us, about its perception and about the abundance of errors, many of which are firmly entrenched in society. As will be explained below, much of what has been said is my subjective opinion, developed on the basis of facts and inconsistencies.

    Links to many of the sources and resources mentioned can be found at the end of the article, I do not specifically publish them in the course of the presentation, so that what I read more or less has time to settle down and only then can I be interrupted to view additional materials.

    Antinauka


    How many of you have thought, is the official scientific theory so unshakable?

    For example, there is a forum on one Russian resource, people gather on this forum and actively discuss various inventions. Main topics: free energy, antigravity and more. So, in this forum, among the discussion of real and unreal inventions of Nikola Tesla, anti-gravity platforms of unknown origin, there is an active discussion of the design of the perpetual motion machine of a certain Georgian. The discussion has already stretched to a good hundred pages (according to the last check on 2010.04.30, there are already 192 pages) and more than 10 interlocutors are participating in it. According to the only video from YouTube, for some fragmentary phrases and warped facts from the life of Nikola Tesla, using absolutely fantastic scientific terms, laws and types of fields, they try to come to a conclusion how this thing works. Pretty intense assumptions are being built, some diagrams are drawn (structural and fundamental), diagrams, and sometimes even the question skips: “Well, tried it?”. In general, day after day, the participants sit and discuss this topic.

    For an hour I looked through the diagonal messages, hoping to see at least one sane person who reminds the audience about the 2 basic laws of thermodynamics. Tolley there is a tough moderation against "dissenters" (that is, adherents of a more or less classical science), toli all the visiting classics are shocked from what they saw to such an extent that they quietly fade from there, or simply do not see the point of meddling in this world miracles, apparently located in a parallel universe.

    Probably, one of my acquaintances correctly spoke out on this phenomenon: “People really like to dream.” This explains all the discussions on the forum. It is also worth noting that none of the audience (in any case the bulk of its inhabitants) is engaged in construction, does not set up experiments, but at the same time everyone sees their uniqueness, their genius Tesla, their experimental talents, however for some reason nothing more not done.

    I would like to quote one amazing entrepreneur (yes, it’s an entrepreneur, even rather a fraud, although he has been imagining himself a scientist for many years) Petrika: “Do not try to understand anything! To understand is not real! And as soon as you attract knowledge, there will be a misfire <...> nothing will come of it! ” The personality, by the way, deserves special attention, especially because it has connections with high-ranking officials, and the RAS has almost equated all its activities with pseudoscience (which is not surprising, because in the presented quote he clearly described the principle of work of all tricks: for now, we just observe - we see miracle, we begin to understand and immediately find a catch). In his speeches, he states that his inventions are already being introduced everywhere or have already been introduced in Europe and even the States, although if you look,

    There is a wonderful book by Russian professor S.G. Rubin, a teacher at MEPhI, is called "How Our Universe Works." At the end of it is a humorous tutorial on compiling your own pseudoscientific theory. Petrik’s creativity fits very well with the points presented in the self-instruction manual, but Petrik went even further: he secured the support of the authorities. One can only guess what will result from this, but the cuts are brewing just fantastic. The following is a scan of this manual:

    imageimageimage

    Many probably remember how the news on Channel One swept a story about a miracle installation, which, using 40 watts of energy, was able to influence the weather and disperse the clouds. Any at least somewhat sensible meteorologist and physicist will immediately identify the main reason why it is very difficult to control the weather: the enormous amounts of energy that are involved in the formation of weather conditions with this “little shot” can only a little ionize the air near the installation.

    And okay, if it was on a well-known channel with leading psychics, but to output ANYTHING on the central channel is too much. Although on it you can constantly observe all kinds of love spells, spoilages and lapels, from which I personally very much turn back. There is a tendency to revive the Orthodox Church and return to it the positions that existed during the time of Tsarist Russia, but religion is a very controversial issue and I will not touch upon it. But in general, it’s good to have an uneducated crowd, it is better to be trained, obediently eats the provided “facts” and does not ask the questions “why?” and why?".

    Chaos in science


    Now about the steadfastness of classical science. Do you think the genius of Einstein is unshakable?

    Once it became interesting to me whether there was a “reverse side”, whether there are stories and expositions that say that Einstein is not a genius, but a fraudster, a charlatan and _______ (necessary to enter). It seems that in our world one can already find ready any presentation of any facts, since I easily found a different view of Einstein's personality. Literally after a minute of “googling”, I went to a “wonderful” resource, a personal page of a Russian-speaking person. Let us put aside that he believes in the existence of the Aryan race (and, of course, relates himself to it) and is a supporter of conspiracy theories on a global scale, but he was attracted to the article: “Einstein and his theory of relativity: 100 years of manipulating the minds of scientists” . Reading it, or rather the part related to the alternative biography of Einstein, to put it mildly, I was in shock. Not only that, he is not alone in his village,

    There are also whole stories of Einstein’s abduction of foreign discoveries during correspondence with colleagues, as well as hints that the geniuses were Einstein’s wives and he used them. In general, after reading it, I learned one truth for myself: if you want to believe in Einstein's genius - please believe, want to repent him, to raze him to the ground (apparently, getting low-level gratifications for your Ego) - bring the read alternative versions to the world.

    He was in the Bible Globe in the physics section, stumbled upon Atsyukovsky’s books with his Etherodynamics and a thin brochure about the state of science. In the latter, he was especially amused by the list of sources used: Lenin, Lenin, Lenin, Atsyukovsky, Lenin. He puts himself in a good environment. But the funny thing is, with how agility he yells about the fallacy of all modern science, about the complete failure of the Theory of Relativity, and so on. If I’m not mistaken, the RAS also put him on the list of pseudoscientists (to go against the Theory of Relativity, this is too much, and the broadcast is an anachronism for now). You must be more restrained, gentlemen, more restrained. In general, when reading, one feels the usual human feeling, called envy.

    Most struck by the many books with names similar to “New Physics”, in which each section was called “New Mechanics”, “New Thermodynamics”, “New Electrodynamics”, and sometimes at the end of each title is added the name of the scientist (usually he is the author). Where do they all come from?

    History


    Perhaps one of the most obvious and observable examples of informational chaos is the rewriting of history. First of all, history is changing by the state, and it’s good when there are still people who remember what really happened, but when there are no more such people (or very few), the path is clear, you can begin to destroy old values ​​and create new ones. Again, if you look at the shelves of bookstores, they decently bent not from ordinary books with the name "History of Russia", "History of the World" and other things, but from books with the names "Alternative History" or "New History", as well as more intriguing, for example, The Secret History. Yes, and in ordinary books with ordinary names, there is sometimes a significant change in priorities, and this is even more dangerous.

    My father is now fond of reading books that set out an alternative history, or rather simply incredible in modern terms: German bases in Antarctica, the construction of ancient Egyptian pyramids by aliens, the education of Neanderthals by aliens, gene experiments, as a result of which the human race appeared, in general, fascinating reading, if at all tired other fiction. This is more harmless in social terms, while very exciting. Moreover, reading it and not being an expert in the field, certain facts and carefully selected coincidences (and there are a lot of them if you wish) excite the imagination and you can even believe in the individual put forward theories.

    However, not the dockings that are being discovered, personally I would immediately be discouraged from reading. For example, it is said: “this information was received from a scientist of such and such (for the purpose of conspiracy, the name has been changed)”, hereinafter: “he works ...” and the full name of the institution along with the position is being entered. A pretty detective turns out.

    Medicine and biology


    Medicine at one time (or rather, with the discovery of antibiotics) made a huge breakthrough in development and won many victories over diseases that tormented humanity for hundreds or even thousands of years. This allowed pharmaceuticals to take a firm position in the economic system. However, we are afraid of all diseases, this fear gives rise to speculation.

    In many areas of medicine, there are now wars between the classical approaches and the "alternates." In some questions, they seem more justified than in physics, in medicine there are much more ways to conduct a biased experiment, and the human body itself is too complex, and sometimes greatly simplified. There is an opinion that for some diseases there is a struggle not with the source of the disease, but with its symptoms, which causes a feeling of incurability and vague manifestations (as an example, you can read about AIDS and HIV).

    But now about speculation. Avian influenza (replaced by swine in the last year), how many people die from the complications caused by it in a year? Dozens. And from ordinary flu? Tens of thousands around the world! So why was there so much speculation around him? For one reason, it was necessary to wind up the excitement around him in order to receive funding for the development of drugs. The old flu has existed for a long time and everyone more or less reconciled with it, it was necessary to provide something new, more frightening. The episode of this situation happened with swine flu, money was pumped up here, they developed “something” with incomprehensible properties, they took responsibility off themselves, and they almost obliged us to get vaccinated.

    Now genetically modified foods. Genetics, answer me, how do genes in cells of genetically modified foods affect our genome? No way, right? They are digested like other proteins. The product itself, after the modifications, will also obviously not become poisonous, and any violation of the balance sheets will be completely insignificant for the consumer. However, again there is reason for speculation. More truthful seems the motivation that gene modifications are made using viruses, but the word “virus” paired with genetic engineering inspires fear. Here's the argument: this virus can be dangerous to humans. I just don’t understand how ... In the form that it is introduced, it is not capable of reproduction (and even more so in the human body), and the probability of an accidental mutation giving it this opportunity is extremely small, more likely

    In medicine, there is the so-called Placebo effect, which is based on human psychology and its perception. The effect is based on a remarkable feature of human psychology: a person believes in what he wants to believe in (or potentially would like to). Moreover, a completely subjective attitude (assessment) of the competence of the source of this information plays a huge role.

    Based on this effect alone, an “honest” experiment can be conducted. We pour water into bottles (it is possible from the tap, but better from the filter, and even better from the "Petrik filter"). We sign some bottles that “ordinary water” is in them, we sign the other half of the bottles: “healing water”. Then we forget about the origin of the bottles and begin to “steam” them into the test group. We say about medicinal ones that the water is spellbound, with positive ions, alien extracts (may UFO forgive me) and others. About plain water, we just say: “This is plain water, drink and tell me whether it cured you?” I think you don’t need to announce the result of the experiment, will you guess it yourself?

    If you develop an idea, then on the basis of this effect you can prove the effectiveness of any drug, and indeed any other action, for example, dancing with a tambourine.

    How do we perceive information


    When providing information to a person, one can exaggerate the significance of one factor, reduce or completely forget about some other factor. Also, the human brain itself can unconsciously block unwanted information. Even Freud in his works mentioned the type of reservations, which he called “forgetting”: a person forgets unwanted, unpleasant information for him.

    Another feature of thinking that interferes with the work of sound logic is associativity and the general tendency to quickly forget the good (and sometimes not even notice) than the bad. In my opinion, it is precisely at the basis of this that the formation of all prejudices, signs and other irrational restrictions lies.

    But most importantly, this happens unconsciously, moreover, even with full awareness you can not control the situation. A good example: I watched an interesting program on a channel with a certain magic number (I can lie with the name if you correct something), it was called: “Code of a man”. It advanced the theory (not only that, allegedly confirmed by research), which contradicts all existing genetics. To be honest, I tried not to succumb to the raving ravings about (literal interpretation): irradiation with one gene set of another, but no matter what, after viewing there was some unpleasant aftertaste.

    A well-known fallacy can be cited. Tell me, how does the music of Mozart and other classics affect mental abilities? Probably, many of you will immediately say: positively, improves mental abilities, maybe even recall the details that they recommend listening to expectant mothers at some periods of pregnancy and so on. In reality, this myth originates from a single article from a certain English yellow newspaper. It describes certain studies conducted on students of a local university, and they, poor people, were forced to listen to classics and study, apparently distracting from watching pornography and parties, so it’s not at all surprising that academic performance has increased. Journalists also played in a damaged phone, well, they gave birth to a myth, and quite successfully.

    Later similar studies were repeated (possibly repeatedly), but no regularities were found. I think this was also written about, however, who cares about such a result, to be precise: such a lack of result? Simply put, no one heard them, the myth continued to exist, even after being refuted. The result, or rather the lack of result when repeating the studies, was of no interest to anyone. Society is bored, they need to serve hot cakes.

    And here is an example of another misconception that is retold in many sources: “Einstein’s reference book was the Secret Doctrine of E. Blavadsky,” which in reality originates from some Nazi propaganda literature, with esoteric movements and propaganda of Aryanism in Nazi Germany, it was beneficial to publish such information, in order to affirm: the genius Einstein himself listens to the teachings of this Dontsova of her time (sorry for such rudeness, but somehow she turned around).

    Information Chaos


    Most likely, most have heard of such a man as Ernst Muldashev, an ophthalmologist, for some reason crawled into esotericism (did you want mystics?). At one time, it was a sin to read some of his works. Frankly, they read interestingly, evenly, everything looks logical and allows you to dream, it does not burden the brain as much as the Secret Doctrine of E. Blavadsky. But if you start to understand what was written, as it was done by a certain Peter Obraztsov (by the way, he blew up a lot of other junk in his books), then you understand that the truth is not there, there is a subjective opinion (or rather just dreams) of the author, embellished with a bunch of fictions, and in places without any concern for the docking of even the simplest facts.

    What am I talking about? It may be really distracted, but look at the headlines in the same Yandex news. One loud entrapment, 95% of duplicates and repetitions, but in fact the usefulness of each individual news tends to zero. Dozens (or hundreds?) Of information portals thoughtlessly reprint the same thing, partially adding some changes, and it’s good if they consist in the usual rephrasing, sometimes the facts change and distort at all.

    I recall a joke:
    Scientist: “We were able to kill 15% of cancer cells in the tail of a laboratory rat!”
    Reporter: "Scientists cured cancer!"


    Such a loud heading will firmly settle in the reader’s head, and given how the Internet teaches us to perceive information, it can even be accepted as a fact. Browsing information on the Internet, and seeing its abundance, it is sometimes impossible to capture the essence of a particular problem, you have to jump to the top, and this simplifies the creation of myths and the introduction of certain rumors and misconceptions into society.

    In conclusion


    I apologize, maybe in some places it turned out very rude, messy and so on. Certain points could not be revealed or not fully disclosed. In much of what has been said, the material is presented from my personal position. A completely neutral approach, alas, is simply not possible. On many points I could not speak out fully, you can find and express a different point of view. I do not have the opportunity to cover everything, I have no right to assert that my opinion is correct, since my professional sphere of activity lies in completely different areas. It is described precisely from the position that I saw while browsing related materials.

    Of course, I don’t think that there is a complete conspiracy, I don’t go to extremes, that many / most universally recognized scientific theories are pseudoscientific, but I also understand some problems of modern science. However, I approach any question / fact from the position that it is potentially true or vice versa false. I would like to believe that the physical / cosmological / chemical scientific theory is still developing on the right track (well, or at least the errors in it are minimal, and if they are present only because of their insignificance at this stage of development).

    Human society has extremely complex interactions and an intricate structure. The motivation of each individual can be incomprehensible without a thorough analysis. As I was convinced, the same factors can be selected and interpreted in a completely different way, eventually making completely different conclusions and forming a different opinion in a person.

    At the same time, human society is well subordinated to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: entropy (i.e., a measure of uncertainty, in other words, chaos) in it is constantly increasing.

    PS "We should not be afraid of censorship, but that useful information will be lost against the backdrop of endless informational noise," the truth that Aldous Huxley saw 80 years ago.

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