[Note: I'm probably going to try out some new types of posts for the foreseeable future. This form is called Boom! React!, and the post will be something to react to: a Quote, Video, Picture, or whatever else I happen to come across. I just thought calling it Boom! React! would enable me to use one of my favorite words: boom; and one of my favorite punctuation marks: !. They just happen to go together quite well, but I digress. Of course if you have ideas feel free to email them to me yickit [at] yickit.com.]
I came across the following quote in my Evidence textbook [Evidence by Paul Rice1 and Roy A. Katriel.] in the case People v. Collins, 68 Cal. 2d 319 (1968):
Mathematics, a veritable sorcerer in our computerized society, while assisting the trier of fact in the search for truth, must not cast a spell over him.
Page 59. I don’t want to spoil any comments, but the first thing I thought about after reading the quotation was statistical analysis especially in regard to baseball. Now I don’t want to belittle the meaning of the case where the use of statistics supported a ridiculous [and prejudiced] conclusion2 by admitting the first thing I thought about was baseball, but it happens. A lot. For me anyway.
Anyway, the quote made me think about the arguments for and against different metrics in baseball with “gut calls” on one side and “advanced statistical measures” on the other end of the spectrum. This battle seems to rage on every time a contract or major baseball decision is made.
I’m not saying the discussion is a bad thing by any means, in fact I think it only advances thoughts along their path to improved reasoning. But then again, I love listening to arguments.
Ultimately, quotes like this lead me to think that there has to be a specific unknown middle ground to be discovered by someone in a spaceship [or thought experiment]. A summation of all available types of information which through personal analysis could be formed into more persuasive arguments that could have even pleased Aristotle by using all available means of persuasion. That process must be out there somewhere.
Where are Bill James, the WGOM citizens, and Grandpa Sports when you need to bounce some ideas off of them . . .
So what does this Boom! React! make you think of? Any reactions to my reaction? Anything goes in the comment section.
If only mathematicians could pull the sorcerer title out of their math bag of tricks . . .
- My evidence professor. ↩
- For some background on the case: People v. Collins. ↩
the title said BOOM and REACT and i got real excited then i read some math stuff and i passed out…was it a good article?
So what you're saying is that math is in fact a sorcerer.