Indeed. Mathematical modelling keeps many snouts securely embedded in the public trough, but we should occasionally reflect on Einstein's salutary warning.Mechsmith wrote:It has been reported that even Mr. Hubble preferred to call the red shift and the resulting constant "apparent" but by simply calling it actual then a whole swarm of theorists were able to make a living from it.
"It is the theory which decides what the observer will observe"... Albert Einstein is discussion with Werner Heisenberg (1925)
What Einstein meant by this arresting statement was this. If we design our models to specifically predict what the observer will observe we can claim only a Pyrrhic victory when the observer duly goes ahead and observes it.
Although Immanuel Kant observed the honourable German tradition of ensuring that his philosophy was unreadable he was a pretty smart bloke all the same. This is what Manny had to say on the matter. It wouldn't win any literary prizes but it goes to the heart of the problem.
“(...) Truth, it is said, consists in the agreement of cognition with its object. In consequence of this mere nominal definition, my cognition, to count as true, is supposed to agree with its object. Now I can compare the object with my cognition, however, only by cognising it. Hence my cognition is supposed to confirm itself, which is far short of being sufficient for truth. For since the object is outside me, the cognition in me, all I can ever pass judgement on is whether my cognition of the object agrees with my cognition of the object”. (Kant, 1801. The Jasche Logic, in Lectures on Logic. Translated and edited by J Michael Young ( Cambridge University Press))
We all know that physicists are far too clever to piss around reading philosophy books, so all they'd know of Kant is how to spell his name (if that!), but you'd reckon they might be able to pay closer attention to their own beatified high priest.
Regards Leo
-- Updated October 20th, 2014, 9:27 am to add the following --
A little back story on the cosmological constant for your amusement, M, and one which might also appeal to DarwinX.
Einstein first invented this constant to account for the fact that the universe wasn't expanding, as his own GR theory predicted. When Hubble discovered that in fact the cosmos was "apparently" expanding Einstein chucked his constant out, calling it the biggest blunder he ever made in his physics career ( It wasn't. He made plenty of much bigger ones but that's a whole new story.) However things went from bad to worse for Albert because it was later discovered that this apparent expansion was accelerating, which meant they had to drag his cosmological constant back out of the dusty attic and shove it back into their equations. The very same constant can therefore be used to successfully explain why the universe is expanding as well as why it's not.
Once again a pithy quote from the great man itself. " You can use mathematics to prove anything"... Albert Einstein (1915)
You've gotta love mathematics, mate.
Regards Leo