Talk:Frank J. Tipler
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[edit] Tipler
Is the huge physics text book written (edited/published) by him?
I only remeber it as "The Tipler". --129.13.186.1 09:43, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC)
No, that's another Tipler. Simon A. 14:25, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
- I dont think this warrants a special mention as the second paragraph of this article. I propose a disambig page to Tipler (name) with a list of ppl with a name of Tipler. Jayvdb 13:21, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
- I think more appropriate would be to have a disambig at Tipler, since both are approximately equally notable. Staecker 18:35, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Omega Point
"... according to Ellis, Tipler's book on the Omega Point is "a masterpiece of pseudoscience ... the product of a fertile and creative imagination unhampered by the normal constraints of scientific and philosophical discipline."
This is an ad hominem attack, and doesn't even begin to address any specific fallacies in the logic. A more rigorous definition of the weaknesseses in Tipler's mathematical reasoning should be included in this wiki entry. (by 82.172.82.100 10:32, 14 October 2005)
[edit] Worsened article
I'm going to revert this article to the one of 17:03, 29 January 2008 Irishguy, which is essentially the content and format the article had since 06:00, 24 December 2007 206.148.136.18. The changes made to the article since 17:03, 29 January 2008 Irishguy have worsened the article for the following reasons:
- The edits made by 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot (1) introduced inaccurate phrasings whereas the original phrasings thereby changed were accurate, (2) introduced ambiguous phrasings whereas the original phrasings thereby changed were unambiguous, (3) removed standard biographical information which the article thereby changed had contained, (4) rearranged the article and thereby introduced improper placement of some elements, and (5) introduced non-Wikipedia (i.e., non-standard) tags.
For examples of No. 1 which 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot introduced: (a) This edit changed "The line of argument is that the evolution of intelligent species will enable scientific progress to grow exponentially, eventually enabling control over the universe even on the largest possible scale" to "He claimed that the evolution of a single intelligent species anywhere in the universe gives rise to scientific progress to grow exponentially, so that the species will eventually control the universe on the largest possible scale." The edited sentence is less grammatical and coherent, i.e., "gives rise to scientific progress to grow exponentially," whereas the original was perfectly grammatical and coherent, as what is to "grow exponentially" is the "scientific progress" previously mentioned. (b) This edit changed "Tipler went on to be hired as a postdoctoral researcher by physicists John A. Wheeler, Abraham Taub, Rainer Sachs and Dennis Sciama" to "After doing postdoctoral researcher under John Wheeler, Abraham Taub, Rainer Sachs, and Dennis Sciama." The sentence "After doing postdoctoral researcher under ..." is ungrammatical.
For examples of No. 2 which 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot introduced: (a) This edit changed "Tipler became Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1981 at Tulane University, where he has taught since" to "Tipler joined Tulane University in 1981 and has taught Mathematical Physics there ever since." (b) This edit changed "But, according to Tipler, because these physicists were looking for equations with a finite number of terms (i.e., derivatives no higher than second order), they abandoned this qualitatively unique quantum gravity theory since in order for it to be consistent it requires an arbitrarily higher number of terms" to "According to Tipler, Feynman et al failed to appreciate the value of their discovery because they were looking for equations with a finite number of terms (i.e., derivatives no higher than second order). They abandoned the quantum gravity theory they had discovered, because its consistency requires an arbitrarily high number of terms." The former phrasing is more coherent, as it makes the logical connection explicit with "since," as well as being stylistically formatted better.
For examples of No. 3 which 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot introduced: (a) This edit left in the detail that Prof. Tipler's father is a lawyer, but removed the detail that Prof. Tipler's mother is a homemaker. Both details come from the same biographical source, that of Rooney (editor), Contemporary Authors, Vol. 157 (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomson Gale, 1997), ISBN 0787611832, pg. 407. (b) This edit removed the attendance years of Prof. Tipler's matriculation. (c) This edit changed "Tipler went on to be hired as a postdoctoral researcher by physicists John A. Wheeler, Abraham Taub, Rainer Sachs and Dennis Sciama" to "After doing postdoctoral researcher under John Wheeler, Abraham Taub, Rainer Sachs, and Dennis Sciama." (d) This edit changed "Tipler became Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1981 at Tulane University, where he has taught since" to "Tipler joined Tulane University in 1981 and has taught Mathematical Physics there ever since."
For an example of Nos. 4 and 5 which 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot introduced: (4) This edit moved the paragraph "Tipler's writings on scientific peer review have been cited by William A. Dembski ..." to the very top of the "Academic work" section, which is an improper placement since one ether ought to order such a section sequentially in time or by career importance, neither of which apply to this paragraph. And (5) this edit introduced a non-Wikipedia tag, i.e., "<source?>."
Additionally, the edits which came after 23:06, 26 March 2008 Palnot did nothing to improve the above, while some introduced new problems, such as 00:29, 27 March 2008 132.181.160.42 inroducing inconsistent and less logical footnote formatting with, e.g., "2005a" and "2005b": such being inconsistent because it doesn't match the rest of the footnote formatting (which was previously formatted in a consistent manner), and less logical because such formatting is unneeded due to the intra-page hyperlinked citation numbers already pointing to the specific references.
Since no new information was added with these edits, nothing pertinent is being lost by reverting to the version 17:03, 29 January 2008 Irishguy, of which doesn't suffer from these problems.--67.232.59.169 (talk) 23:04, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
