2012?

[loftar]

As for the subject of psychology itself, I'm unclear of my position on it. I have yet to see a concise definition of its actual subject matter: obviously, Aristotle reasoned about the nature of the human mind thousands of years ago, and he felt no need to call his research "Psychology", so I do find myself wondering what the subject has been expanded with to merit the usage of this rather new term.

Psychology is the study of the software that runs on the human distributed computation engine (brain+muscles) and is an attempt to reverse engineer the driving principles in order to predict outcomes.
I don't really see how it's less scientific than proper science. I do see a lot of crap out there that's done fairly un scientifically, and a lot of really poor assumptions (like assuming everyone runs the same version of the software and that the software doesn't change itself over time)

My point stands unmodified, however: 'Aristotle reasoned about the nature of the human mind thousands of years ago, and he felt no need to call his research "Psychology", so I do find myself wondering what the subject has been expanded with to merit the usage of this rather new term.' I would further argue, indeed, that it is precisely under the heading of "Psychology" that the most unscientific crap seems to be sorted.

EDIT: Oh, and this. :)

[niltrias]

I thought that the Long Cycle that ends in 2012 was the largest division of the Mayan calendar, not a subset.

If you want to know the details, see the Wikipedia article on the subject. I've linked specifically to the section which contains a reference table of the start of the various b'ak'tun periods. It is the 13th of 20 b'ak'tuns that ends on 2012-12-21. The 20th ends on 4772-10-13. Chakravanti put it rather well -- it's just the Mayan Y2K.

Aha, got it, thanks. So the date we should be living in fear of, then, is October 13, 4772.

[Chakravanti]

I would argue that theoretically psychology can be a pure science, using scientific methods, albiet with extraordinary help from those uber-purist mathematician's sketchy cousin's the Statisticians.

Even then, all predictions are purely a matter of probability.

I would further argue, indeed, that it is precisely under the heading of "Psychology" that the most unscientific crap seems to be sorted.

Also, this.

To be fair, having all the facts is such an arduous task that forming effective statistics that aren't just bullshit propaganda to endorse some new fad self help guru or systematic scam is largely impossible. Hence psychology is always on a case by case basis where all the details are available. So there becomes a new variable: the psychologist collecting the data. Their integrity and their own problems.

A lot of people would argue that the research into psychology can help a lot of people. Some people have based their entire lives and careers on faith in that supposition. The same, however, may be said of Scientology.

[Chakravanti]

October 13, 4772.

Aleister Crowley's 2825th birthday!!!!

[reticulata]

Everything just IS.

"Before enlightenment,
I chopped wood and carried water.
After enlightenment,
I chopped wood and carried water." ~Zen saying

Wood chopping and water buckets...Perhaps this is why I am attracted to this game.

[DasGuntLord01]

I've always prefered:

"Before enlightenment
I chopped wood and carried water.
After enligtenment
I understood what wood and water were, where they came from, and what their place was in the cosmos." ~ Old Astrophysicist's Saying

[mustardboy33]

I also think this guy might destroy earth!(no not really)

[Flame]

Say the truth. Someone pay yoou to post this bird everywhere XDDD