What is the astrological equivalent of an escape velocity?
I like looking at those historical moments when the old theory bravely tried to incorporate the new data, and collapsed in favor of the new theory. Keplar’s “music of the spheres” giving way to Newton’s ballistics. Principia mathematica giving way to Gödel’s incompleteness theorems. The search for lossless data transmission ending with Shannon’s theorum.
It’s too early to see if Thomas Piketty’s work is going to do something similar to the study of economics. I think there’s a more fundamental bias that economists must overcome.
[Since it is assumed that human beings are fundamentally different/better/more evolved than the rest of the animal kingdom, there is a profound reluctance to apply the rules of ecology to human habitats.
If climate science were applied to human economics, the need to scale back all petroleum consumption would register as urgently as Covid 19’s study compells us to do social distancing and wear masks.
But, y’know, here we are…]
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I find myself bothered by the astrolabe used to illustrate the story. Putting white stars on the blue tympans or climates in the background is wrong because the stars are already on the rete or brass grill in the foreground. They are the little points labeled with the names of the stars next to them. The lines on the tympans represent the (apparantly) fixed parts of the night sky that the stars move through as the Earth rotates. I realize that this is just used as a background to show the positions of the planets. but is is still confusing.
Edited to add. As I look closely, it appears that the points on the rete are pointed at the correct stars in white on the blue background. Keep in mind that if you were to rotate the rete to show a different time of night, or season, that the stars in white on a blue background would rotate with the rete, not be fixed to the azimuth and altitude lines.
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Maybe I missed it but I noticed no mention of WHICH astrology or astrologies were considered. Newspaper Western, or Chinese, or Indian, or Mayan?
When one’s wallet has been finally emptied by the last fortune teller?
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Yes they can, and they should be, because divination is irrational nonsense.
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When you look at it statistically, leeches are just as effective as a therapy as colloidal silver. This does not imply that leeches deserve another look.
Also biologists are unable to predict which organisms will be born with what mutations! Doctors can’t figure out which cells will become cancerous, or which cancers are dangerous! Physicists still can’t tell us on which side of a two-slit grating their detector will record an electron!
None of those are actually problems, in the first two cases because the sheer number of variables mean that precise, local, near term predictions are not how those disciplines work and in the latter case because that’s not how reality works, yet the argument is the same.
Actually, for economics the situation may even be worse than for medicine and biology. Cancer isn’t trying to mess with your predictions, but as soon as economics notices any exploitable pattern, humans take notice and take actions (laws, business models, market trading decisions) that make the pattern different or nonexistent next time. The normal method for calculating option prices *intentionally includes stochastic (random) influences to account for unknown shocks. Even Hari Seldon needed the secret Second Foundation to solve these problems.
And yet, (some?) economists make accurate predictions far more often than chance, and in addition, aggregate systems show remarkable regularities over decades, centuries, and millennia. Amongst the ancient astrologer/astronomers were Ptolemy and Yi Xing, pushing their field closer to what we moderns consider a science. Amongst the economists, yes there are pseudoscientists doing bad work, yes there are people paid to hold certain opinions and spout themloudly in public (whatever you think of him, Paul Krugman’s distinction between a “conservative professional economist” and a “professional conservative economist” seems relevant). But there are also those trying to understand the past and what effects it will have on the future. Whatever their political views, at present this would seem to include Thomas Piketty, Nassim Taleb, Robin Hanson, Andrey Korotayev, and many others with or without significant public profiles.
I can understand why it might be useful to examine astrology from the perspective of science. I don’t understand why it required so many pages. Ten or so should do.
Biorhythms are a thing, for sure. But the position of Mars suggesting that everyone born on your birthday should start that home improvement project that they’ve been putting off…give me a break.
Your comment seems to come out from a Flatland-like worldview. You are free to neglect (or be unaware of) the mythopoetic and archetypal dimensions, at your peril. As Carl Jung said, talking about neglecting the energy and force of the archetypes, “The gods have become our diseases .”
I’ve read the book and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The topic is fascinating, the book is witty and fun, and Mr Boxer clearly knows the topic. Though I am dumb in math, I understood most of the “hard” parts, as the author made all the explanations pretty accessible. The book is filled with juicy information that will amaze and tickle any curious mind. From my perspective, Mr Boxer is not a “believer”, and the book is not a defense of astrology (as someone pointed out or implied in some of the comments). The author walks an ambiguous line, which I believe it’s part of the charm. All in all, a very satisfying read.
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I have remedied my like to a 1 to 10,000,000,000 homeopathic dilution.
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This “dilution” quip is interesting, and resonates with a key idea from the classic book Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas. Talking about the physical effects that the planets have on earth it’s easy to calculate that (using Newton’s law of universal gravitation) such effects are practically close to zero - less than homeopathic. But the point is: IF you buy into that narrative, the effects of planets (on earth and supposedly on human lives) are not physical, but metaphysical. This space is ruled not by the laws of science, but laws of archetypes, poetry, enchantment, meaning.
Which astrological system or systems does the author cover? Is any attempt made to compare or combine Chinese, Indian, Mayan, Chaldean, and newspaper astrologies? If only the latter is analyzed, why should we pay any heed, except as Western history trivia?
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The scope of this book is not encyclopedic. From the introduction, Boxer writes: “Certain topics, such as the astrology of India and China, I’ve avoided altogether on account of the fact that I know very little about them. But the traditions of Greek, Roman, and Renaissance astronomy and the modern-day arts of statistical analysis are subjects which I know quite well, the latter through my profession, the former through a lifetime’s fascination.” Seems fair to me, I see no issue in having a Western-centric focus.
So it’s essentially a history of newspaper astrology?
No, it’s a history of Western astrology (not the newspaper kind of astrology).
I remain skeptical of a “scientific perspective” that views only one historical line and ignores the preponderance of data i.e. non-Western systems. Has Western astrology, evolving from Chaldean to newspapers, influenced Western cultures? Certainly, and I’ve read a bit on that. But IMHO it has little to do with ‘science’ now.
