[ExI] Physics versus psychology

[Richard Loosemore]

BillK wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 6:54 PM, Damien Broderick  wrote:
>> Mathematics is basically people chatting. Physics and psychology is
>> basically people chatting and taking carefully measurements and chatting
>> again then taking more careful measurements.
>>
>> BillK might be getting psychology confused with psychoanalysis, or est, or
>> novelists.
>>
>>
> 
> Pull the other one, Damien.  :)
> 
> Show me psychologists playing with a billion dollar machine.

Wait:  shirley you can't be serious?  ;-)

a)  There are probably a few hundred multi-million-dollar brain scanning 
machines in use by psychologists, worldwide.

b) Cognitive psychologists like myself will soon be needing (and within 
the next ten years we will probably be *getting*) some seriously large 
supercomputers.  In fact, I would not be surprised if you find that 
within the next ten years the use of supercomputers by a new branch of 
the psychology community starts to overtake all other uses (because this 
new branch will be a hybrid of psychology and AI).

However, having said all of that, it ain't scientific need that 
determines who gets the billion-dollar toys.  You know that.  :-)




Richard Loosemore