The Demon of Morton

South African author Joan De La Haye offers Demon Friday. Surprisingly, it's each Friday and it involves a demon from one grimoire or another. She also greets us as 'freaky darlings', similar to Vampira. Top class!

This is my own take on Demon Friday, except it's not always on Fridays and it doesn't feature real demons or pictures of real demons. Sorry.

These are all my posts on demons:

1. The demon of Laplace, regarding probability.


2. The demon of Maxwell, regarding thermodynamics.


3. The demon of Descartes, designed to invoke skepticism.


4. The demon of Morton, designed to make one aware of confirmation bias.

"I knew I had a problem, and I couldn't admit it." - Lindsay Lohan, showing possession by Morton's demon.

Morton's Demon

This demon is similar to Descartes's demon in that it is a demon intent on fooling you. Except, instead of fooling you that the world is real and that you are wrong for not conforming to the world, Morton's demon convinces you that you are right and the world is wrong for not conforming to your ideals. To put it succinctly, Morton's demon is a personification of confirmation bias.


Paris Hilton. She knows all about critical thinking.

How to combat Morton's Demon

Naturally, combating Morton's demon involves admitting that you are wrong. This is not as easy as it seems, especially since you're already convinced that you aren't wrong. In other words, you rely on faith instead of on reason. It is deceivingly simple to substitute reason with faith, as is evident by the success of the law of attraction and the common misconceptions regarding the incompleteness theorems of Kurt Godel. A good way to combat Morton's demon is with critical thinking.

Filchers: A field guide to critical thinking

Filchers stands for Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness, Honesty, Replicability [sic] and Sufficiency. You may read all about Filchers in James Latt's excellent post on critical thinking. I shall only give a brief description of each aspect here:

1. Falsifiability: Falsifiability means that the assertion is testable. In order for an assertion to be considered scientific, conditions have to exist that would render the assertion false. It is not always applicable to Morton's demon, especially since different degrees of belief are under scrutiny.


2. Logic: Arguments presented to support a claim must be sound. This means that your assertions should necessarily follow upon each other. To paraphrase John Reed, everyone is entitled to their own opinions but everyone is not entitled to their own facts and logic. To paraphrase Paris Hilton, see you at the debates, bitches!


3. Comprehensiveness: All the available evidence must be considered. This is where Morton's demon meets his match.


4. Honesty: Evaluate evidence objectively. This means that all the evidence is evaluated without self-deception. Honesty means you come to a rational conclusion after evaluating all the evidence. Honesty is essential and complements all the other components of Filchers.


5. Replicability: If the assertion is based on an experiment, then the experiment must be repeatable. Repeatability means that accurate predictions about future results may be made.


6. Sufficiency: The evidence has to be sufficient to justify the assertion. Ordinary claims are supported by ordinary evidence, whereas extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

In addition, it is helpful to keep some common logical fallacies in mind when evaluating evidence or when doing some soul searching to cast Morton's demon out of your own house. Marilyn vos Savant, one of the people with the highest recorded IQ, has a great article on logical fallacies for the layman.

Suggested reading

• Morton's demon discussed with regards to creation science.


• Morton's demon showing how beliefs alter reality.


• Panda's thumb cartoon on Morton's demon. "You reach a conclusion to a theory first, then just ignore all evidence that proves you're wrong".

The Demon of Descartes

South African author Joan De La Haye offers Demon Friday. Surprisingly, it's each Friday and it involves a demon from one grimoire or another. She also greets us as 'freaky darlings', similar to Vampira. Top class!

This is my own take on Demon Friday, except it's not always on Fridays and it doesn't feature real demons or pictures of real demons. Sorry.

These are all my posts on demons:

1. The demon of Laplace, regarding probability.


2. The demon of Maxwell, regarding thermodynamics.


3. The demon of Descartes, designed to invoke skepticism.


4. The demon of Morton, designed to make one aware of confirmation bias.

René Descartes invented the evil genius, or evil demon, to illustrate how far his skepticism stretched. The evil genius of Descartes presents a complete illusion of the outside world to the senses. In addition, Descartes's demon presents an illusion of a physical body to the senses. Similar to the Truman Show scenario, this demon keeps us captive in a simulated reality where we have no way of determining what is real or unreal based on sensory input. We also have no way of knowing that the demon is manipulating us.

This evil genius must have convinced Joel Schumacher to cast Val Kilmer as Batman. Or even to go anywhere near the Batman franchise.



Batman Forever, a film that underperformed due to its violent content. Really? No, I think it underperformed because it was crap. If Uma Thurman can't save a movie, nothing can.

Cartesianism

Descartes held that there are three realms:

1. The realm of the body, which is the physical world.


2. The realm of the mind, which is our internal mental world.


3. The realm of God, which is something that only Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead knows anything about.

Similar to the religious conviction that people are souls that inhabit bodies, Descartes held that people are thoughts that somehow think themselves without the need for a body. The body is thus part of the physical realm. This physical realm is easily manipulated by the evil genius.



Lemmy of Motörhead. A real evil genius.

Different Versions of Descartes's Demon

Some interpretations of the evil genius grant the demon different powers. To some interpretors, there are things that do not rely on the senses for their validity. Among these are mathematics and logic. The evil demon would not be able to fabricate mathematics and logic, thus these are your weapons against Descartes's demon.

Other interpretations hold that the demon is omnipotent and can even manipulate our thoughts, or mathematics and logic itself, to convince us that our world is real. We are thus helpless against Descartes's demon.

BP stock holders might like Descartes's demon

If this world is simulated, it means that BP stock holders did not really lose a fortune after the tragic oil spill. Which would be a more comforting thought if the demon did not fabricate money in our realm in the first place.

The Demon of Maxwell

South African author Joan De La Haye offers Demon Friday. Surprisingly, it's each Friday and it involves a demon from one grimoire or another. She also greets us as 'freaky darlings', similar to Vampira. Top class!

This is my own take on Demon Friday, except it's not always on Fridays and it doesn't feature real demons or pictures of real demons. Sorry.

These are all my posts on demons:

1. The demon of Laplace, regarding probability.


2. The demon of Maxwell, regarding thermodynamics.


3. The demon of Descartes, designed to invoke skepticism.


4. The demon of Morton, designed to make one aware of confirmation bias.

Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment proposed by James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell invented the demon to attempt to show that the second law of thermodynamics is only a statistical anomaly and not a rigid, unbreakable law. Like the law that prevents Ozzy Osbourne from taking a slash on the Alamo cenotaph.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics Revisited

Remember that the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of the universe tends to a maximum, or stated differently: you can not win.



Megan Fox. Like a young Angelina Jolie with gimp feet.

Thus, the second law of thermodynamics states that the universe is in a state of universal decay. That's right, Lady Gaga and Megan Fox are not going to be sex symbols for all eternity. An almost famous Spinal Tap quote has it that:

“Well, Nigel and Dave are two extremes, like fire and ice. I see my role in the band is to be somewhere in between... like lukewarm water.”

Which illustrates the second law of thermodynamics perfectly. The second law requires that there is an energy flow between bodies until an equilibrium is reached. This means that fire, which is in a more chaotic state than ice, would cause ice to take on a more chaotic state. By the same token, ice would cause fire to take on a slightly less chaotic state, until the luke warm water somewhere in between becomes apparent.

Maxwell's Demon and the Luke Warm Water Somewhere in Between

Suggest that we have a container with blue coloured ice water. We pour a cup of red coloured scolding water into this container. According to the second law of thermodynamics, we ought to end up with luke warm purple water, but not if Maxwell's demon has his way.

Maxwell's demon is a hypothetical creature that can discern between the molecules of the ice water and those of the boiling water by sensing its energy levels. Maxwell claims that his demon would thus be able to separate the blue ice water molecules from the red scolding water molecules. His demon would do so by means of a trap door.

This means that, if such a demon existed, the second law of thermodynamics would be broken, as it is hypothetically possible to move from a currently more chaotic purple state to a previously less chaotic red and blue state. If entropy is symmetrically reversible, it means that there are ways to overcome the problem that the universe tends to maximum entropy. It also means that Megan Fox and Lady Gaga can stay hot for ever. Great...

More importantly, it means that perpetual motion is possible. Which would be nice considering that loads of our oil has been spilt in the Gulf of Mexico by BP. I'm not sure if Maxwell's demon would be a convincing argument for mortgage refinancing, but it's worth a shot.

The Demon of Laplace

South African author Joan De La Haye offers Demon Friday. Surprisingly, it's each Friday and it involves a demon from one grimoire or another. She also greets us as 'freaky darlings', similar to Vampira. Top class!

This is my own take on Demon Friday, except it's not always on Fridays and it doesn't feature real demons or pictures of real demons. Sorry.

These are all my posts on demons:

1. The demon of Laplace, regarding probability.


2. The demon of Maxwell, regarding thermodynamics.


3. The demon of Descartes, designed to invoke skepticism.


4. The demon of Morton, designed to make one aware of confirmation bias.

Inspired by this medieval motley crew, I decided to offer a grimoire of demons closer to my heart. Or perhaps closer to my head.



Pierre-Simon Laplace as captured by the Wikipedia paparazzi.

Laplace's Demon

Pierre-Simon Laplace is famous for being both French and smart simultaneously. In this rare combination, he managed to contribute to the development of mathematics and statistics. His contributions to statistics include an early version of Bayesian analysis.

Laplace was so impressed with the success of statistics and probability to determine guesstimates of the occurrences of events that he proposed the notion of Laplace's demon.

What is Laplace's Demon?

Laplace's demon is a hypothetical creature that - instead of hiding in your broom closet or underneath your bed - knows the exact location and momentum of each atom of the universe. Armed with this knowledge, Laplace claimed that his friendly demon would be able to predict the exact future location and momentum of each atom of the universe. In effect, Laplace's demon would know the past, the present and the future from analysis.



Pierre-Simon Laplace's demon as captured by the Wikipedia paparazzi.

Should we believe in Laplace's Demon?

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states that there are difficulties with knowing both position and momentum of a body simultaneously. This means that we're stuck with at best half a demon at any given time. Perhaps Laplace's demon may give us the odds, but it can't give us certainty as to the causal outcome of a given event. Laplace's demon may fail due to interpretations of quantum mechanics. A more accurate description of Laplace's demon may then perhaps be Laplace's bookmaker of the universe.