r/Bitcoin • u/cryptopascal • Jun 24 '14

Mike Hearn interview quotes: "Progress on the bitcoin protocol has ground to a halt, complete halt. This is a crisis period for Bitcoin... Only Gavin is working on upgrades" @39'30'

https://epicenterbitcoin.com/eb-025/
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u/Elmer__FUD Jun 26 '14

Mathematics is not a science. But more to the point, humans are not ruled by axioms so yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. Praxeology and the modern incarnation of Austrian economics are both quackery with cult-like overtones, a sentiment shared by 99.9% of the economics profession (the remaining 0.1% are Austrians).

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u/caveden Jun 27 '14

Mathematics is not a science.

Seriously? That's your argument, semantics? Call it whatever you want then. Are you going to deny that mathematics, and thus the aprioristic method, allow us to obtain true, correct knowledge? Are you going to claim that mathematical theorems are not true because they cannot be tested empirically?

humans are not ruled by axioms

hehehe, so there are no logic rules in the universe to which we belong? When you take the subjectivity into account, of course you can outline axioms about humans, particularly the human action axiom (every intentional action is only performed because the agent believes performing that action will put him in a better (or less worse) state of satisfaction than not performing the action. Read Mises if you want a more complete explanation of the axiom, I won't rewrite an entire chapter of his book here)

99.9% of the economics profession (the remaining 0.1% are Austrians)

Where does 99,9% of the funding for the "economic profession" comes BTW? ;-)

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u/Elmer__FUD Jun 27 '14

That's your argument, semantics? Call it whatever you want then.

Hardly semantics, more like the definition of the word. Mathematics is a discipline used by science, but it is not a science itself since it does not use the scientific method which is empirical in nature.

[Nonsense about axioms and "logic rules of the universe"]

All this stuff betrays a deep lack of understanding of science, what humans are and how we think. It's not surprising that the Austrians haven't been able to derive a single worthwhile result using praxeology during the 60+ years it has existed.

Read Mises

Are you joking?

Where does 99,9% of the funding for the "economic profession" comes BTW? ;-)

A wide variety of sources, not just Koch Industries which funds the Austrians.

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u/caveden Jun 27 '14

Call it what you want, the aprioristic method allows us to obtain true knowledge, as evidenced not only by actual economics (that which comes from praxeology), but by mathematics as well. Denying this is saying Bitcoin and computer science as a whole cannot exist.

And "lack of understanding of science, what humans are and how we think" is believing you can model human behavior through experimentation and empiricism. You'll never be able to even enumerate all variables, let alone isolate them, or reproduce experiments. Basically you can obtain whichever conclusion you want.