As long as we don’t have to respect his authority or consider him infallible, we can say hello to The Quantum Pontiff.
Although…computer science? What do we need their kind for? Shouldn’t we be getting more biologists here?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Your puny biology will fall before the barbarous ranks of physical reductionism! Physics spits at your “emergent properties” and “holism”!
You will no doubt enjoy this recent exchange between Scott Aaronson and Eliezer Yodkowsky:
SA: “If true, this is a beautiful argument for one of two conclusions: either that (1) digital computers shouldn’t have as hard a time as one might think surpassing billions of years of evolution, or (2) 25MB is enough for pretty much anything!”
EY: “… In an amazing and completely unrelated coincidence, I work in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Did I mention DNA is on the way out in much less than a million years? …”
What is the quantum of pontification, anyway?
“Although…computer science? What do we need their kind for? Shouldn’t we be getting more biologists here?”
Two answers:
1. I should think it obvious to anyone that Conway’s Game of Life is far more interesting than actual *life*.
2. What branch of biology *doesn’t* use simulations these days?
The quantum of pontification, if by which you mean what is pontification measured in, is definitely a Thaum.
The amount of prayer required to create 1 white dove out of nothing.
Now, misquoting Terry Pratchet will result in a deluge of angry (and drunk on shandy) propellor heads descending like the wrath of an incontinent cow on this blog…
I took genetics from a guy who claimed he wsnted to be proclaimed the “pope of genetics” just long enough to simplify and standardize the vocabulary.
Hey, I’m a physicist! Okay, maybe I’m a computer scientist and a physicist. Either way biology is certainly just a subdiscipline of computer science or physics (take your pick) :) One discipline to rule them all!
Dave Bacon, you need to update your address ;)
Doh. My fingers just automagically type that old address. Time to retrain my fingers (takes out hammer…)
Computer science sucks. I don’t know why anyone studies it.
Welcome to ScienceBlogs, Dave!
Good to see CS being represented around here, it’s certainly needed to compensate for all the biology and such (although I’m admittedly very interested in AI, where neuroscience contributes a great deal). Anyways, welcome!
Any field which has “science” in its name… probably isn’t.
Biologists? Forget that; you have enough of those species crawling around here. What about the lowly chemists? They deserve better than to be lumped in with the physicists here!
What about the lowly chemists? They deserve better than to be lumped in with the physicists here!
Indeed! Harumpff!
“Any field which has “science” in its name… probably isn’t.”
Like “neuroscience”?
As long as we don’t have to respect his authority or consider him infallible, we can say hello to The Quantum Pontiff.
Don’t worry, the uncertainty negates the infallibility.
“Like ‘neuroscience’?”
Well, “brainology” sounded stupid, and brainology.com was already taken, so “neuroscience” was the next-best option. :)
Lezard,
You think that’s bad? Another term for computer science that has currency in some circles is “datalogy”. Tell me that doesn’t sound stupid!
Whoa?! What’s with the CS crack at the end?
Don’t computers make all new even possible? They don’t program themselves. The correct algorithms to use and how to weave it together to help solve scientific problems should not be trivialized.
OK, I’m a CS grad/programmer and I’m sensitive! :)
Happy Guy Fawkes Day! All together now:
A penny loaf to feed ol’Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,’
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we’ll say: ol’Pope is dead.
Let us not forget the Guy Fawkes was the only man ever to enter parliment with admirable intentions.
You’ve really done it now, PZ, with that crack about Computer Science … ;-)
I’m sure you’ll get comments from all five of us CS types who regularly lurk here …
Besides, better Computer Science than “Creation Science”!!!
Tyler, are you dissing my department?
For those who don’t get it, Datalogy was a phrase coined by Peter Naur, the founder of computer science in Denmark, and the first head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen. Unsurprising, computer science is called Datalogy in Denmark, and the name of the department reflects this.
“Shouldn’t we be getting more biologists here?”
How about more biology from the biologist we have hosting this blog. He used to be pretty good at conveying the excitement and wonder that evo-devo produced as it began to explain the deep commonalities we organisms share. Has evo-devo come to a dead end?
I’m sure you’ll get comments from all five of us CS types who regularly lurk here…
Oh, surely, there are at least a dozen of us…..
Hrm.. does it count that I defected from Electrical Engineering to Computer Science… before I got kicked out of school?
Or does it count that Dad’s a pysicist and Mom’s a historian? ( Would mention the sister that’s also a physicist with a minor (or was it a dual major) in Systems, but she’s negated by the sister who’s an artist)
Or that I have practiced biology in the past ( I have two kids )
I even have a couple telescopes…
and at last count (back to CS) I have at least 8 functioning computers at home (family of 4) and somethign like 45 computer carcasses in my garage?
Of course not. I just like to brag occasionally about my family.
As for the definition of science – if you can’t smack it with a stick, it’s not science, no matter what you name it.
Have fun bioposting your biocomments on your bioblog made out of, I guess, agar and electric eels. Jackass.
Another Computer Science student offended by little quips made at the end of blogs, that are hosted by computers, and accessible on the internet, which, unless there’s some bible passage proving me wrong, was created by computer science types.
Actually, some of what gets taught in CS isn’t science – it is technology …
But CS is unusual – a feature shared with some psychology departments – that there are is basic (think theory of computing), applied (algorithms) and technology (software engineering) taught and researched in one place.