Every science is a degenerate habit of thought. Magical thinking is the creative discipline of resisting the lure of that degeneracy. The best way to do that is to convince yourself that science has a general method to it. Methodicity is actually the mark of magical thinking.
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Replying to @micahtredding
As in math. 3 points in a straight line is technically a degenerate triangle. In one sense, the simplest kind of triangle. Occam’s razor is an example of a degeneracy test.
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Replying to @vgr @micahtredding
More generally compression as a measure of explanatory correctness is at odds with a methodological characterization of science. There’s in fact a result (google Chaitin’s omega) that suggests the whether an algorithm explaining some data is the most “elegant” is undecidable
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Replying to @vgr
You’re saying following a repetitive method helps you avoid any “local maxima” of compression?
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Replying to @micahtredding
No, I’m saying almost the exact opposite. Optimization is a dangerous metaphor to use in computability theory though. The underlying space is not well-behaved enough. I would not try to understand this idea in optimization terms.
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Replying to @vgr
How did I know you were going to “exact opposite” me?


Local maxima is probably my own degenerate habit of thought.
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No it’s a non-degenerate habit of thought. Optimization is one of the main branches of magical thinking.
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