logoalt Hacker News

cardanomelast Thursday at 12:20 PM8 repliesview on HN

> Sabine Hossenfelder

She really needs to stop commenting on topics outside of theoretical physics.

Even in physics she does not represent the scientific consensus but has some very questionable fringe beliefs like labeling whole sub-fields as "scams to get funding".

She regularly speaks with "scientific authority" about topics she barely knows anything about.

Her video on autism is considered super harmful and misleading by actual autistic people. She also thinks she is an expert on trans-issues and climate change. And I doubt she know enough about artificial intelligence and computer science to comment on LLMs.


Replies

Mekolotolast Thursday at 12:28 PM

Your statement is missleading.

She doesn't say she is an expert on trans-issues at all! She analyzed the studies and looked at data and stated that there is no real transpendemic but highlighed an statistical increased numbers in young woman without stating a clear opinion on this finding.

The climate change videos do the same thing. She evaluates these studies discusses them to clarify that for her, certain numbers are unspecific and she also is not coming to a clear conclusion in sense of climate change yes, no, bad, good.

She is for sure not an expert in all fields, but her way of discussing these topics are based on studies, numbers and is a good viewpoint.

The funding scam you mention is a reference of "these people get billions for particle research but the outcome for us as society is way to small"

show 3 replies
dimallast Thursday at 4:23 PM

> Her video on autism is considered super harmful and misleading by actual autistic people.

I’m autistic and I just watched her video. I found it to be one of the best primers on autism I’ve seen. Not complete, of course, and there’s a lot more nuance to it, but very even handed. She doesn’t make any judgements. She just gives the history and talks about the controversies without choosing sides, except to say that the idea of neurodiversity seems reasonable to her. When compared to most of the discourse about autism, it stands up pretty well. Of course, there’s a lot more I want people to know about autism, but it’s an ok start.

Actually, many autistic people (myself included) would find your statement far more harmful. You assume that all autistic people think alike and believe the same thing. This is false. You try to defend us without understanding us.

Don’t do that.

I suppose there’s a possibility that you’re autistic and found it harmful to you. If so, don’t speak for me.

And she was commenting on an AI’s knowledge of Bell’s Inequality, which is PHYSICS. If she can’t comment on that, who can?

show 1 reply
dauertewigkeitlast Thursday at 3:22 PM

I agree with you that Sabine often talks about matters far outside of her expertise, but as somebody with a foot in academia, I would bet that a very large number of academics have at least one academic research direction in mind that they would categorize as a "scam to get funding".

hitekkerlast Thursday at 11:18 PM

I was nodding along to your comment, at first. But then I read your follow-ups, which look like you're covering something up that you fear could be true.

I don't know what that something is, so I think I should go listen to Sabine Hossenfelder.

show 1 reply
netbioserrorlast Thursday at 5:57 PM

Based on what I've seen of Sabine, virtually all of this post is lies. She regularly positions herself as an outside skeptic and critic. Do you have any examples or her claiming authority or representing consensus?

me_me_melast Thursday at 1:15 PM

but Bell Theorem IS physics! so according to you she absolutely can comment on LLMs understanding of physics or lack of it.

so your whole rant makes no sense

show 1 reply
Der_Einzigelast Thursday at 4:24 PM

She’s very full of shit and feels a lot like a lex Friedman for women.

I can’t wait for others to call her further out for being herself the biggest grifter of them all, bigger than most she tries to take down.

idiotsecantlast Thursday at 1:44 PM

Yes, she is the worst type of 'vibes based' science communicator and mainly just says edgy things to improve click rate and drive engagement.