A STATISTICAL CONJECTURE: Some Thoughts about Causality Errors

	If Student X is an egghead
	and Student Y is an arsehole
	what parameters must come together
	for optimal learning to unfold?

	It seems safe to assume most instructors are luggards
	and classrooms are essentially cemeteries
	How many degrees of freedom are needed
	to see the inherent absurdity?

	If we pump out enough data
	and isolate the variables to a sufficient degree
	anything can begin to look like anything
	but isn't that the purpose of statistics:
	to prop up desired beliefs? 


Bill:  Ah, flimsy conjectures! So much human activity is based upon frail premises.

Gus:   Yes, we live in a house of cards: a wobbly construction of myths, half-truths, and lies.

Nadya: Hasn't it always been so? 

Liao:  (nodding) Perhaps. As our intelligence grows, so does our capacity for illusion.


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from _Cyberpoems: Exploring the Human-Machine Interface_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  Some thoughts about  the misuse of statistics in complex systems
KEYWORDS:  statistical intent, analytical errors, meta-statistics

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - ?)
Begun: 2001 in Nagoya, Japan / Finished: 2019 in Yokohama, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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