The Nominal Fallacy

Examples of fancy words used by experts that imply knowledge when there is none.


Folksonomies: knowledge understanding naming

Memes

14 MAR 2016

 "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" are Terms That Hide Ignor...

We can measure the influence of this thing we call dark energy, which is forcing an acceleration of the expanding universe. We don't know what that is, we don't know anything about it, other than what it's doing to the universe. Then 85 percent of the gravity of the universe has a point of origin about which we know nothing. We account for all the matter and energy that we're familiar with, measure up how much gravity it should have — it's about one-sixth of the gravity that's actually ope...
Folksonomies: science ignorance unknowing
Folksonomies: science ignorance unknowing
  1  notes
 
14 MAR 2016

 "Holistic" is a Word That Hides Our Ignorance

We're often told that certain wholes are more than the sum of their parts. We hear this expressed with reverent words like holistic and gestalt, whose academic tones suggest that they refer to clear and definite ideas. But I suspect the actual function of such terms is to anesthetize a sense of ignorance. We say gestalt when things combine to act in ways we can't explain, holistic when we're caught off guard by unexpected happenings and realize we understand less than we thought we did.
Folksonomies: ignorance words
Folksonomies: ignorance words
  1  notes
 
14 MAR 2016

 "Colic" Means "I don't know why your baby is crying"

The strict medical definition of colic is a condition of a healthy baby in which it shows periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks. There’s that word there, unexplained. For years I thought this word “colic” described a phenomenon that was understood and therefore natural. The etymology of the word, pertaining to “disease characterized by severe abdominal pain” in the early 15th century suggests ...
Folksonomies: nominal fallacy
Folksonomies: nominal fallacy
  1  notes
 
01 MAR 2016

 "Intelligent" Holds "Paranormal" Connotations

As soon as AI successfully solves a problem, the problem is no longer a part of AI. Pamela McCorduck calls it an "odd paradox," that "practical AI successes, computational programs that actually achieved intelligent behavior, were soon assimilated into whatever application domain they were found to be useful in, and became silent partners alongside other problem-solving approaches, which left AI researchers to deal only with the "failures," the tough nuts that couldn't yet be cracked."[3]
  1  notes

"Interesting. Seems similar to the notion that "paranormal" things become "normal" once there are scientific explanations for them."

Also: God of the gaps.



References

14 MAR 2016

 Baby colic

Electronic/World Wide Web>Wiki:  Various, (2016), Baby colic, Retrieved on 2016-03-14
  • Source Material [en.wikipedia.org]
  • Folksonomies: definitions medical
    Folksonomies: definitions medical
     1  
    14 MAR 2016

     The Society of Mind

    Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Minsky, Marvin (1985), The Society of Mind, Retrieved on 2016-03-14
  • Source Material [aurellem.org]
  •  1  
    14 MAR 2016

     Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Cosmos Shouldn't Mak...

    Audiovisual Media>Audio Recording:  Tyson, Neil deGrasse (February 27, 2014), Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Cosmos Shouldn't Make You Feel Small, Retrieved on 2016-03-14
  • Source Material [www.npr.org]
  • Folksonomies: science cosmos
    Folksonomies: science cosmos
     1  
    01 MAR 2016

     AI is whatever hasn't been done yet

    Electronic/World Wide Web>Wiki:  Various, (2016), AI is whatever hasn't been done yet, Wikipedia, Retrieved on 2016-03-01
  • Source Material [en.wikipedia.org]
  • Folksonomies: ai
    Folksonomies: ai
     1