Mathematics of War

[Presley Cannady]

From Registan by Joshua Foust A Pragmatic Extrapolation from Limited Data

A dirty secret in science. There is no way to "prove" causation. Causality is accepted as principle, and discarded only when evidence raises the possibility of acausal behavior. What we do instead is measure the confidence we have that a series of events is causal, and that is generally determined by measure the statistical significance of an action with a perceived result.

[Rex Brynen]

A dirty secret in science. There is no way to "prove" causation. Causality is accepted as principle, and discarded only when evidence raises the possibility of acausal behavior. What we do instead is measure the confidence we have that a series of events is causal, and that is generally determined by measure the statistical significance of an action with a perceived result.

Damn, you mean cancer doesn't cause smoking? I feel so misled.