# Technology doesn't work that way - SamuelA's Pit Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420 "2017-12-03T00:52:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/241 "2017-12-28T20:36:00Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > [Frank Zappa & Moon Zappa - Valley Girl Lyrics | AZLyrics.com](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/frankzappa/valleygirl.html) > > I mean… stop this. You’re just _so bad_ at this. You don’t know “obdurate” and you don’t recognize Val speak, but you are arrogant enough to correct (wrongly) on both. > > Just… stop. For your own good. Like, totally. Barf me out! Gag me with a spoon! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/242 "2017-12-28T20:41:17Z")
I mean, there’s this total betch, SamuelA, and he, like, completely corrects people on stuff they are, you know, experts on. It’s so gnarly reading his posts, i’m like gag me with a spoon. But then, you know, to be called an idiot by this guy is so totally grody to the max. And he’s not even a Baldwin, just some guy who is so not cute. As if! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/243 "2017-12-28T20:42:38Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > **Sam,** did you go and put someone else on ignore? You did that after our talk? > Didn’t we decide that wasn’t a good thing to do? Apparently his “Ignore” function does something ours can’t. I am on “Ignore” in this thread, but he responds directly to a post I made in another: > [@Coke, Blackjack, and hookers on the high seas](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-blackjack-and-hookers-on-the-high-seas/805467/15): > > Well, it would have to be a country that has legalized drugs and recreational use. You’d protect it with armed security and keeping the actual drugs in a locked vault. Sure, 10-20 men with AR-15s aren’t going to be able to stop pirates that show up in a destroyer, but it probably would be enough security if the boat were off the coast of Georgia or something. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/244 "2017-12-28T20:42:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Sam, what follows is a serious suggestion … > > … Some years ago I stumbled on this blog. [http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/12/18/genetic-variation-gets-more-real-all-the-time](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/12/18/genetic-variation-gets-more-real-all-the-time) > > Turns out the guy is real famous in his field as the elder statesman of bloggers who’ve got something smart to say about a pretty deep topic. He’s a medicinal chemist, a guy who searches for and perfects medicines. I’ve read every post of his for the last 8 years. Along the way I’ve learned a great deal about the big picture of chemistry, biochemistry, cellular biology and organism biology. > > He has slowly taught me that our current understanding of cellular & organism-level biology is on a par with primitive tribes’ understanding of physics. It’s not dead wrong, but there’s vast tracts of pure guesswork and areas where we can’t tell first order effects from 4th order effects. As well as vast areas we don’t even know exist. > > What makes him magic is that beyond his PhD and his 30+ years in the industry doing cutting edge stuff there’s a deep-seated humility and a total absence of boosterism and hucksterism. We know more than did the witch doctors baying at the Moon. But not \*that \*much more versus how deep this stuff really is. We’ve barely scratched the surface of understanding how any of this stuff really works. > > … **Dunning-Kruger is real. The greater one’s expertise, the more they recognize the limitations to their knowledge and skill. Their awareness of those unknown unknowns grows ever larger. There is wisdom in the intellectual humility that flows from that understanding.** An excellent and thoughtful post as usual, **LSLGuy** (last paragraph bolding mine). I was going to respond to it when I saw it last night, but I was too tired. What I wanted to say at the time was that, as insightful and well-intentioned as your post is, you were unfortunately probably wasting your time, considering the subject to whom your observations were directed. My prediction would have been that **SamuelA** would not only totally miss the point, but he would start arguing with you. And so it has proved. In the intervening hours that’s exactly what happened. At least, I think he was arguing; perhaps someone could translate this into English: 😃 You realize that what you are talking about there are terms where some of them nearly infinitely times harder than others. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20689410&postcount=157](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20689410&postcount=157) This is, incidentally, the same post in which **SamuelA** succinctly summarizes artificial intelligence for us: “just big mathematical algorithms that explore a solution space”. There you go. But I would expect no less from the same genius who also brilliantly summarized for us the architecture of the brain and explained for us how cognition and consciousness works, [as I cited over here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20686500&postcount=87). The point here, of course, is that although the greatest minds of our times struggle with understanding these things and pushing forward the bounds of discovery, **SamuelA** struggles with nothing. The point, in other words, is the one that [**Qadgop** made here about Dunning-Kruger](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20675545&postcount=46) – as you did, too – and **SamuelA** ’s unique place on that curve. I’ve had the privilege of knowing a number of world-class experts in their fields of research, and you’re absolutely right about intellectual humility. They may be impatient with obvious fools and some are masters of sarcastic barbs, but they know the limitations of their own knowledge and in the face of it are often humble and even self-effacing. Yet when they do have something to say they’re usually both insightful and correct. The bloviating moron who is the subject of our observations here is the antithesis of all of those things. He would argue with these people and tell them why they’re wrong – it would be, dontcha know, because the principles are really quite simple and they just don’t get it. But **SamuelA** does. The only thing that might ever change that – maybe – is the passage of a great deal of time and the onset of maturity and, hopefully, some measure of actual competence in something. > [@SamuelA](#): > > And it’s ok for you to not realize that the definitions of both words are so \*similar \*(your new word of the day!) that my answer was still correct. It’s also ok for you to feel superior that because you know a rarely used English word and I didn’t, that must mean you are smarter than me. Why, if you’re smarter than me, that must mean you’re right about everything and I’m not. “Obdurate” is not an obscure word. But even if it was, “tenet” certainly is not, as it’s not only a common word but one with special significance in science and philosophy. [You didn’t know that one, either](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20638296&postcount=5041). And few would consider the expression “per se” to be obscure, even in everyday writing. You got that wrong, too. And of course, in all these cases you must insist that [“my answer was still correct”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20689694&postcount=210) and, most remarkably of all, [“I’m using tenet correctly”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20638322&postcount=5042) despite hilariously thinking it was a homonym of “tenant”! Because, of course, you can never be wrong. 😃 That you knew none of these things yet lay claim to genius is consistent with all your asinine techno-babble and is yet another testament to your full participation on the left-hand side of the Dunning-Kruger distribution. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/245 "2017-12-28T20:48:42Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > It is amusing, your total lack of self-awareness. I wonder if Sammy has been checked for Asperger’s. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/246 "2017-12-28T20:55:09Z")
**Sam** , people don’t like it when you curse out other people and drop f-bombs. They just don’t like profanity. That’s why I’m damn sure I never do any fucking shit like that. Maybe you should back off a tad with it. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/247 "2017-12-28T20:56:10Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > :sniff: ☹ > > A mission proposal with a $940 billion variance is not a mission proposal. > > Even your analogies fail on the specifics. > > And if I do “shut the fuck up”, well, that’s one more time I’m getting laid, and you’re not. 😛 What’s an error of magnitude or two between friends when you’re on a mission to Mars? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/248 "2017-12-28T20:58:25Z")
I’m hoping he comes back and tells me I used “variance” wrong. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/249 "2017-12-28T20:58:56Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I wonder if Sammy has been checked for Asperger’s. I’m sure he’s fully qualified to do his own psych evaluation and diagnosis, TYVM. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/250 "2017-12-28T21:07:01Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I wonder if Sammy has been checked for Asperger’s. I think it’s dust mites. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/251 "2017-12-28T21:09:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > l, [“I’m using tenet correctly”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20638322&postcount=5042) despite hilariously thinking it was a homonym of “tenant”! Because, of course, you can never be wrong. 😃 > > That you knew none of these things yet lay claim to genius is consistent with all your asinine techno-babble and is yet another testament to your full participation on the left-hand side of the Dunning-Kruger distribution. I did use tenet correctly. I just mispelt it in a way that the spell check didn’t warn me about. And you’re accusing me of asperger’s when you’re trying to use a single mistyped character is “evidence” in your argument that you know things I don’t, and I should have some humility. You just pitted yourself. If you were smart, you’d actually compare hypotheses instead of jumping to conclusions. 1. Hypothesis 1 : SamuelA doesn’t know the word tenet, despite using the word “tenant” in exactly the same context the word “tenet” would be used. Therefore I can use this evidence as proof that for topics I know nothing about, SamuelA is wrong. 2. Hypothesis 2 : SamuelA mistyped tenet as “tenant” because he’s a human being and has flaws like any human being. If you were intelligent, you’d be able to pick which of these hypotheses has better empirical support. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/252 "2017-12-28T21:10:27Z")
Holy shit on a shingle. I go away on vacation for a few days for the Holidays, and it. . . it just _doesn’t_ stop? **SamuelA** , why do you keep on continuing to dig your own egotistical and intellectual grave? Listen man, I really need you to step away from Mom’s computer for a second, go upstairs, and get some sunshine. We all need to collectively have an intervention with you. It seems that over the Christmas, your ego raided your father’s liquor cabinet at night, and passed out on the front lawn. It was found the next morning curled up in the cold, wearing nothing but unbuckled galoshes, boxer shorts, and a trenchcoat while mumbling something about “Mom’s meatloaf.” Your integrity and reputation were nowhere to be found. Your imagination however, was on top of the roof, equally fucking smashed, riding your Mom’s Santa display by trying to fuck Rudolph from behind “because his shiny nose is proof he’s got nanobots!” Seriously man, we need to reign in your personality elements just a [skosh](http://http://www.dictionary.com/browse/skosh) before you take this ‘Holier Than Thou ALL’ attitude too serioulsy and you do something ‘kinetic’ to Mom’s computer that ends up bad for you. I’ve tried to read through your posts from the past few days, but your technobabble proves to me that while English is in fact your preferred method of communication, your primary languages are ‘fanciful imagination’ and ‘wishful thinking.’ [I’ve asked](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20685324#post20685324), but you haven’t provided any iota of evidence of any professional certifications or academic training that makes you even remotely qualified in the comments you have on the topics and hand; and frankly, you’re still playing with smoke and mirrors to find a technology that will either A) support a flimsy argument, or B) you can rest your laurels on to “prove” that you’re right. Remember that whole “Atomic Act of 1946” thing you tried to pass off as fact? C’mon man, there are people here that know what they’re talking about, and you can’t baffle us with bullshit [sub](not all of us)[/sub]. It’s okay to be wrong brother, but the first step is admitting you have an egotistical problem that clouds your judgement. I am the first in line to say I’m not an expert in lots of things, but I do know an airplane in a flaming tailspin towards the ground when I see it. Perhaps your autopilot is still engaged and stuck on ‘descent.’ You need to “aviate, navigate, and communicate” the way out of your situation. Tripler Seriously, all you have to do in the first step is take a breather. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/253 "2017-12-28T21:14:38Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I’ve tried to read through your posts from the past few days, but your technobabble proves to me that while English is in fact your preferred method of communication, your primary languages are ‘fanciful imagination’ and ‘wishful thinking.’ [I’ve asked](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20685324#post20685324), but you haven’t provided any iota of evidence of any professional certifications or academic training that makes you even remotely qualified in the comments you have on the topics and hand; and frankly, you’re still playing with smoke and mirrors to find a technology that will either A) support a flimsy argument, or B) you can rest your laurels on to “prove” that you’re right. Remember that whole “Atomic Act of 1946” thing you tried to pass off as fact? C’mon man, there are people here that know what they’re talking about, and you can’t baffle us with bullshit [sub](not all of us)[/sub]. I quoted an article stating I was right about the Atomic Energy Act. It clearly stated and supported the conclusion I reached. Turns out, the Washington post was not a correct primary source, my bad. I acknowledged I shouldn’t have trusted them without doing further research…in thread. I quoted the article. You called me a lier and said that even though the post where i mentioned their conclusion but linked something else, I must have just been lying. Without producing my browser history in a way that can’t be faked, guess I can’t disprove your “lying” hypothesis…though it is also poorly supported by evidence. Do you have any _other_ support for your “_technobabble_” hypothesis? Or is the only topic you feel qualified to comment on? You know there was a long thread about using nukes to redirect asteroids, and I did some solid work there. Must be something you can nitpick. All you did was jump in and claim long distance tightbeam nuclear shaped charges won’t work…which isn’t something that I claimed. TLDR, no bullshitter, you’re the bullshitter. What you just posted is steaming bullshit, and an impartial intelligent observer would acknowledge that. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/254 "2017-12-28T21:17:08Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > I did use tenet correctly. I just mispelt it in a way that the spell check didn’t warn me about. And you’re accusing me of asperger’s when you’re trying to use a single mistyped character is “evidence” in your argument that you know things I don’t, and I should have some humility. > > You just pitted yourself. If you were smart, you’d actually compare hypotheses instead of jumping to conclusions. > > 1. Hypothesis 1 : SamuelA doesn’t know the word tenet, despite using the word “tenant” in exactly the same context the word “tenet” would be used. Therefore I can use this evidence as proof that for topics I know nothing about, SamuelA is wrong. > > 2. Hypothesis 2 : SamuelA mistyped tenet as “tenant” because he’s a human being and has flaws like any human being. > > If you were intelligent, you’d be able to pick which of these hypotheses has better empirical support. I don’t think you have Asperger’s, Sam. I think you’re just a common, everyday, arrogant, know-nothing, argumentative asshole who found himself a forum with a captive audience. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/255 "2017-12-28T21:18:48Z")
Personally I think **Tripler** just pitted himself. Do I have it right? I’m trying to figure out what goes into the determination of an assessment that one has pitted themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/256 "2017-12-28T21:18:52Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Do you have any _other_ support for your “_technobabble_” hypothesis? Or is the only topic you feel qualified to comment on? You know there was a long thread about using nukes to redirect asteroids, and I did some solid work there. Must be something you can nitpick. He is handing you your ass, and you are asking him to run it through a Veg-O-Matic first? ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/257 "2017-12-28T21:19:02Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I don’t think you have Asperger’s, Sam. > > I think you’re just a common, everyday, arrogant, know-nothing, argumentative asshole who found himself a forum with a captive audience. Captive how? All you have to do is leave this thread, leaving me with the last word. You’re pitting yourself. You obviously are so argumentative that you’re posting here to justify your own idiocy. You must have these same qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/258 "2017-12-28T21:20:48Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I don’t think you have Asperger’s, Sam. > > I think you’re just a common, everyday, arrogant, know-nothing, argumentative asshole who found himself a forum with a captive audience. Tell me you don’t find this entertaining. It’s 4:19 on a Thursday during the holiday season, there’s no other game in town. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/259 "2017-12-28T21:21:33Z")
Is anyone else reminded of Shagnasty? Trying to impress people on a forum by going into fits of fancy then digging ever deeper when challenged. Step away for a week and replace forum posting and sci-fi fantasizing with exercise and meditation. Or dig deeper. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420/260 "2017-12-28T21:21:44Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > Personally I think **Tripler** just pitted himself. Do I have it right? I’m trying to figure out what goes into the determination of an assessment that one has pitted themselves. He pitted himself because he posted a wall of bullshit where he calls _another_ poster a bullshitter. It’s bullshit because when he claims “technobabble”, he’s just revealing his own ignorance and lack of ability to discern the difference between “technobabble” and real ideas. A person who’s ignorant can’t tell the difference between “magnetic refrigeration” and “remodulating the phaser banks”. It’s all just “technobabble” to them. He uses as “support” for his argument a thread where he argues as himself as a primary source against the Washington Post. And then claims I was the bullshitter for assuming the newspaper was a more credible source than him, who I thought was just a hand jamming bomb diffuser, not a guy who’d know anything about nukes other than how to disarm one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-doesnt-work-that-way-samuelas-pit-thread/803420.md?page=14)