Schroedinger’s Scientist

The other day, as I was sipping hot chocolate and talking with my college friend Cora about the play Copenhagen*, I had a thought:

In statistics, or at least null hypothesis statistical significance testing, the observation of an experiment changes it. Until you are aware of the results of an experiment, you can formulate any hypothesis you like, but once you have observed the data you can no longer generate new hypotheses to test against it in any rigorous way. Observation changes the quantification of probability. Sound familiar? I don’t know enough about the mathematical foundations of statistics or about quantum mechanics to take this parallel any further just yet but I’ll put it on my to-ponder list.

Which is excellent and still running at Central Square Theater and which we’d just seen together.

Date: October 10, 2015

Tags: DulyNoted