Comment on Peter Higgs, physicist who theorised Higgs boson, dies aged 94

• givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  speculating outside of his core expertise

  …

  He’s been focusing on it for like 20 years… And not on his own, he’s been working with psychologists and anesthesiologists. Dude is pretty much the only physicist working at understanding consciousness, he’s literally the expert

  And that’s not even getting into how physics is technically outside his expertise. Dudes a mathematician, he just applied that to physics, then applied physics to brains.

  He doesn’t claim to understand all of it, just like Einstein died before his shit was proven. Then Penrose showed up and worked with Hawking to prove a lot of Einstein’s theories.

  Penrose 100% accepts he won’t live long enough to see his stuff finished. But he’s confident it’s in the right direction and if future generations keep working, some day we’ll actually understand what consciousness is.

  But it’s not exactly easy man.

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  • xkforce@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Penrose is a physicist. Thats where his expertise lies. He is not a neuroscientist, psychologist or any other profession that is relevant. He is NOT an expert in the area he has barged into. Being competent in one field DOES NOT translate into competence in others.

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    • kebabslob@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, and I would too. Wouldn’t ask you for advice though. What did Penrose do to you, anyway? Nobody should be barred from learning new fields just because they already know one. Biochemists benefit massively from AI but they’re backgrounds aren’t traditionally computer science

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      • xkforce@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Biochemists arent claiming that they know AI better than AI researchers do. If you dont understand why it is dangerous to be talking about things outside of your wheelhouse then there is no arguing with you.

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    • skye@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Okay but you can probably ask someone that is not a biologist to learn about certain aspects of the brain and how it works. While you can’t ask a plumber how the brain works for example, you can probably get his perspective on things related to blood flow (to some extent). Maybe you ask a chemist about certain chemicals in the brain and so on.

      It might not be the best idea however to claim as a plumber that consciousmess is a series of pipes, but it’s fine to give a view of something through a different lens.

      Hell, neither me or you are experts in any of this, or experts in something to do with debating scientists or socials in gneeral, but here we are giving perspectives anyway.

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      • xkforce@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        My perspective is that someones’ opinion isnt worth anything unless they actually have relevant expertise in what they are talking about. I do not need a degree in neuroscience to point that out.

        Some opinions are worth more than others. Opinions based on facts and relevant expertise matter more than ones that arent.

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