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The Plumber Problem

hypercritical.co

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Re: The Plumber Problem

#31

Post by e28eta »

dudul wrote: post #4

Yeah you need a better name for that, because, while the phenomenon is real, the name is kind of meh. Why not the electrician problem? Or the teacher problem? Any profession would work. Why plumbers? Plus, I can't really recall any movie or novel where expertise in plumbing was essential to the plot. Editing here because based on some replies my message wasn't clear: I was talking about expertise in plumbing exhibite…

Does he? “Here’s a phrase I use, and what it means” seems fine to me. There might be a bit of personal history why he chose a plumber, but I’m guessing he doesn’t remember.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#32

Post by wCxV8HzziQBb »

appleflaxen wrote: post #19

In the Matrix humanity is enslaved to use them as an energy source. But the 2nd law of thermodynamics requires that any energy harvested would be, by definition, less than the energy of the food required to sustain their bodies. Therefore the plot makes no sense, because they should just shovel the food directly into the computer and skip the humans.

that's just because they're mining for what computers need to function: RLHF data.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#33

Post by bluGill »

thriftwy wrote: post #22

Going along with narrative requires suspension of disbelief. However, when you see obvious factual errors, disbelief comes knocking again as you begin questioning everything.

One of the reasons I like fantasy is the plot is set in a universe with different physics and so much of my knowledge of this world can be set aside. Even then though I often wonder how do they feed those large cities with only wilderness between them (most are set on navigable water, even though it is just luck at least the city location doesn't violate possibility, but the lack of explanation of how they get food) - underground dwarf cities are the worse about this.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#34

Post by AlbertCory »

sublinear wrote: post #27
AlbertCory wrote: post #8

As a writer myself: I have actual experts review what I write. That's about the best you can do. I think I read that The Big Bang Theory makes sure all the science is accurate. I wouldn't know.

It's too bad then that the rest of the show was so awful. How can writers focused on scientific accuracy create such ugly and unlikeable caricatures for their cast and embed so much anti-intellectualism in every episode?

Totally agree.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#35

Post by dsr_ »

appleflaxen wrote: post #19

In the Matrix humanity is enslaved to use them as an energy source. But the 2nd law of thermodynamics requires that any energy harvested would be, by definition, less than the energy of the food required to sustain their bodies. Therefore the plot makes no sense, because they should just shovel the food directly into the computer and skip the humans.

The Doylist explanation is that of course the human brains are being used as computing substrates; the energy explanation is a symptom of how little the Zion people actually know about the world.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#36

Post by tobr »

clarada wrote: post #11

This applies to the real world as well. I've had a couple of times when I've been closely involved in an event that was covered in the national newspapers. Both times the stories were presented with major factual inaccuracies and with clear bias. I've brought this up in conversation a few times over the years and quite often a similar experience was reported by others. Yet everyone still seemed happy to trust the acc…

This is the Gell-Mann amnesia effect mentioned in the post.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#37

Post by NeoTar »

sublinear wrote: post #27
AlbertCory wrote: post #8

As a writer myself: I have actual experts review what I write. That's about the best you can do. I think I read that The Big Bang Theory makes sure all the science is accurate. I wouldn't know.

It's too bad then that the rest of the show was so awful. How can writers focused on scientific accuracy create such ugly and unlikeable caricatures for their cast and embed so much anti-intellectualism in every episode?

That was my opinion as a PhD astrophysics student. I didn't recognise the people being presented.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#38

Post by blowski »

nomadluap wrote: post #12
dudul wrote: post #4

Yeah you need a better name for that, because, while the phenomenon is real, the name is kind of meh. Why not the electrician problem? Or the teacher problem? Any profession would work. Why plumbers? Plus, I can't really recall any movie or novel where expertise in plumbing was essential to the plot. Editing here because based on some replies my message wasn't clear: I was talking about expertise in plumbing exhibite…

or just, "The Expert Problem"

I know “the expert problem” as being unable to explain your area of expertise to anyone because your entire vocabulary and mental model of the world is so deep into that expertise. This is why so many of us on HN are ignored at work, for example - the leaders prefer simpler explanations they can understand, even if they’re wrong.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#39

Post by dilyevsky »

dsr_ wrote: post #35
appleflaxen wrote: post #19

In the Matrix humanity is enslaved to use them as an energy source. But the 2nd law of thermodynamics requires that any energy harvested would be, by definition, less than the energy of the food required to sustain their bodies. Therefore the plot makes no sense, because they should just shovel the food directly into the computer and skip the humans.

The Doylist explanation is that of course the human brains are being used as computing substrates; the energy explanation is a symptom of how little the Zion people actually know about the world.

Afaik that was in the original script but was removed because it was considered too complicated for general audience to understand.

Re: The Plumber Problem

#40

Post by sublinear »

dudul wrote: post #4

Yeah you need a better name for that, because, while the phenomenon is real, the name is kind of meh. Why not the electrician problem? Or the teacher problem? Any profession would work. Why plumbers? Plus, I can't really recall any movie or novel where expertise in plumbing was essential to the plot. Editing here because based on some replies my message wasn't clear: I was talking about expertise in plumbing exhibite…

https://imdb.com/title/tt0079727/

The Plumber (1979)

A young couple, living in a campus apartment complex, are repeatedly harassed by an eccentric plumber, who subjects them to a series of bizarre mind games while making unnecessary repairs to their bathroom.

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