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RE: The Problem of Collective Reputation

in #steem6 years ago

"I think you misinterpret me. When I define "markets" I'm not talking about "money" but talking about "resources". Social resources aren't necessarily money."

I guess that was unclear due to the following from the beginning of your post.

"...I interpret human behavior as being based on economics..."

You state:

"It is not a fact that individuals exist."

While it is true we are a social species, we are also not eusocial, but quite variable in our acculturation. I note that I actually do not simply fit into the extant pre-defined categories, and undertake my own course based on my personal analysis of what is meet and proper.

While statistically I am insignificant, it remains true that such individualism spawns neologisms culturally, and this cannot be reckoned by extant social physics.

There is much good that can be learned from applying mathematics to big data. However, that application is hamstrung by nescience. We cannot apply analytical methods to data if we don't understand the actual real world reasons the data is as it is. We don't understand cognition, consciousness, and much else. What we assume about why the data is generated as it is critically affects how we interpret that data, and simply crunching numbers is nothing more than Sudoku.

Social physics necessarily claims to be more than mere number crunching of data, and this is obvious from the name of the field itself. It claims to relate those data to society, and we understand very little of society beyond that it generates data. Improved understanding of the genesis of that data is necessary before such analysis can be functionally applied to social physics.

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We don't understand cognition, consciousness, and much else. What we assume about why the data is generated as it is critically affects how we interpret that data, and simply crunching numbers is nothing more than Sudoku.

Which is why I avoid assuming. I simply say I don't know. I don't know if there really are individuals. The science (physics) says there is no free will for example. I also don't know whether or not consciousness is an illusion as some philosophers say or whether it's quantum as some mathematicians say.

All I can see are behaviors. So the data we have does not include what they call "private events". We cannot know anything other than behaviors and from this we have data. Social physics at best can detect behaviors from the data or in some cases maybe predict future behavior statistically but it cannot work magic. It could be because we simply don't have enough data or it could be that social physics just isn't as powerful as some of the mathematicians seem to think.

I'm not going to defend or attack social physics but if it proves to be useful then I'll make use of it out of pragmatism.

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