Chad over at Uncertain Principles points to an article Are Physicists Smart? Disciplined Professionals serve Power. To quote from the article
That is the main reason, in my view, that physicists are stupid: They are unable to perceive complexity, a complexity of the real world that goes far beyond what physics will ever be able to handle in any universe. They are unable to even get a glimpse of the textures and subplots that may be intrinsically incompatible with mathematical description. To them, mathematics is the language of reality, not a mere human invention or genetically delimited _expression. To them, the objective mind is all-powerful and able to open all doors. To them, useful perception is physiological and does not benefit from the uncertainties of one’s emotional state. To the physicist, communication is data transmission, not the subtleties that can only be captured by the right configuration of social and emotional attributes. The physicist deals in hard bits, not the imperceptibles that determine our animal and social lives. The physicist is unaware of his blindness and glibly confident in his perception, especially his perception of himself as systematic unraveller of the truth.
Yep, that’s us physicists, a bunch of stupid cultural illiterates. Indeed.
One interesting question that this brings up is whether or not it is actually true that all fields of human endeavour are subsets of physics. He questions this, but I am one of those that he critizes who thinks more time, money and better computers (ALA Dave’s Fermat Paradox argument, where are we now? BQP?) will explicitly demonstrate that all fields of human endeavour actually are subsets of physics. In 50 years when we have (obscure reference warning) cosmically intelligent rat gods running around cyberspace writing symphonies with their NP-complete solving computers I think his argument disintegrates.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone skilled in “the subtleties that can only be captured by the right configuration of social and emotional attributes”: He just wants to gain fame/notoriety.
My advice would be to ignore him.
What I find funny about this is that physicists have the highest average GRE score of any subject (but of course not all subjects use the GRE).
Did anyone notice this guy’s tagline? He’s a physicist.
Chill out, Dave. If you read some of this Rancourt fellow’s other writings (or look at this article), you’ll see that, while he might seem to calling you narrow-minded, emotionally-stunted, and stupid, really he’s just asking you to join his revolutionary struggle against capitalism. Maybe if he asked more nicely…
He’s a physicist? Then he should be acquainted with many of the (possibly apocryphal) Feynman or Einstein or Borh or … stories, no?
As if that wasn’t enough, this fellow is suggesting that doctors no longer need to learn physics, organic chemistry, and calculus. See my assessment of this absurd notion here.
The major thesis of the site on which the Rancourt article is found appears to be that the US and Israel are bent on world domination by any means necessary, including everything from capitalism to genetically modified foods.
IOW, what Scott said, with the amendment that the revolutionary struggle seems to be against very nearly everything characteristic of the more-or-less developed world.