[LINK] The black hole image came thanks to student Katie Bouman, half a tonne of hard drives and a big coincidence - Science News - ABC News

[Roger Clarke]

On 12/4/19 8:28 am, JLWhitaker wrote:
> Thank goodness they used planes and harddrives, otherwise they would 
> have REALLY broken the Internet!!
> https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-11/black-hole-event-horizon-telescope-five-things-you-might-miss/10993112 

Am I the only one shaking my head at the naivete of the media in 
relation to this beat-up?

I like the idea of science, because it calls for scepticism, e.g.

1.  Q.  What colour is a black hole?
     A.  Black (or for colour theorists, 'it doesn't have any')

2.  Q1. If all energy in a big region is sucked into a small region,
         what electromagnetic signals will escape from it?
     A1. None

     Q2. What colour does the human body interpret if the eye receives
         no electromagnetic signals?
     A2. Black (or for colour theorists, 'none')

Meanwhile, the claim that this is the first 'photograph' of 'a black 
hole' could only be true if we take an enormously liberal interpretation 
of what a 'photograph' is.

There's been a vast amount of data gathered, which has then been 
subjected to a massive amount of manipulation, based on models that are 
based on a series of assumptions, in order to come up with a 
consolidated set of data that's thought to represent a reality 'a long, 
long time ago in a galaxy far away', which has then been rendered by 
graphic artists in order to provide images that reflect longstanding 
traditions of what light-shows in space ought to look like.

Vast resources are wasted pursuing the alice-in-wonderland 
sub-atomic-particle game.  (Encounter error-factor, postulate another 
backward-spinning entity with negative weight and both positive and 
negative charge depending on whether the cat is dead, alive or both, 
etc.  Wait until media have forgotten the last round.  Do it again.  Ad 
infinitum).

Now we're wasting vast resources on vastly backwards-looking 
examinations of background noise, pretending that we'll get to see what 
the Big Bang looked like.  Or not, as the case may be.


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University