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Pseudo science, why no pseudo IT?

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    Pseudo science, why no pseudo IT?

    While on one of my walks I got talking to a guy who does websites. He told me about the bloke, client I think he said, on this site

    WWT - Weather Without Technology - Welcome

    Like a lot of "pseudo sciences" I suppose, there may be some truth in there somewhere. Perhaps there are patterns in weather, a cold February could be more likely to follow a dry January. I shall be checking. Not sure it's less accurate over the long term than usual weather forecasts.

    Anyway, the chap has a lot of dedicated followers apparently. The main point is, could you lot be missing out on making some money here by focusing entirely on technology? Some people reject science and embrace "the other". I know some bright people who believe in acupuncture, homeopathy (aTW?), negative vibes etc.

    What about an IT company that combines Visual C++ with spiritualism, orders a database according to the rules of Feng Shui etc. Doesn't matter if you don't believe it, you may attract clients!
    bloggoth

    If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
    John Wayne (My guru, not to be confused with my beloved prophet Jeremy Clarkson)

    #2
    Originally posted by xoggoth View Post
    While on one of my walks I got talking to a guy who does websites. He told me about the bloke, client I think he said, on this site

    WWT - Weather Without Technology - Welcome

    Like a lot of "pseudo sciences" I suppose, there may be some truth in there somewhere. Perhaps there are patterns in weather, a cold February could be more likely to follow a dry January. I shall be checking. Not sure it's less accurate over the long term than usual weather forecasts.

    Anyway, the chap has a lot of dedicated followers apparently. The main point is, could you lot be missing out on making some money here by focusing entirely on technology? Some people reject science and embrace "the other". I know some bright people who believe in acupuncture, homeopathy (aTW?), negative vibes etc.

    What about an IT company that combines Visual C++ with spiritualism, orders a database according to the rules of Feng Shui etc. Doesn't matter if you don't believe it, you may attract clients!
    Business Analysis (although not really cool enough for the LinkedIn "Thought Leaders and Influencers").

    Even Big Data is looking a bit old-hat these days.
    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by xoggoth View Post
      Like a lot of "pseudo sciences" I suppose, there may be some truth in there somewhere. Perhaps there are patterns in weather
      There are certainly patterns in weather. They're called "climate".

      You can predict, to some degree and in some places, in the long range (e.g. seasonally) using well-known patterns that are closely connected to ocean-atmosphere teleconnections (ENSO, PDO, NAO etc.), but that's science, not pseudo-science.

      Still, the above is definitely in cat lady territory. The trick with all these things is to plant a seed to bring in the punters. In this case, anecdotes about climate that have been collected over centuries in folklore, which are based on something - observation - so they're not useless. Still, they aren't going to trouble numerical weather prediction models and other scientific approaches at any forecast horizon. The reality is that computer models are pretty useless at forecasting beyond a small number of days in most places, because they are super-sensitive to small errors in the initial conditions (cf. chaos). So, at a certain forecast horizon, pseudo-scientific BS and proper science may be equally useless. The difference is that scientists wouldn't pretend otherwise, because they aren't looking for punters, on the whole

      Comment


        #4
        Pseudo IT = Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys...
        Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

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