QUOTE (nprev @ Mar 25 2007, 03:43 PM)
...However, what's kind of interesting (and revealing) is that you could superimpose the pseudos over actual scientific disciplines & draw connections. Some of these 'disciplines' were ancestral to real sciences, like astrology was to astronomy. Remember, we've only had some actual idea of how things in the Universe really work for a pitifully small fraction of human history, and before that everything was <clinking> magic...no wonder the pseudos still have such a powerful grip on a significant fraction of the world population.
I want to start out that I don't believe in astrology as it is practiced today. But I am curious about it's origin in the 'mists of time'. And whenever I see or hear the phrase "how things 'really work'" I have to kind of smile because I don't think we have any difinitive answers, just a lot of theories that fit current observation. But as more observations are made we are constantly finding things we didn't anticipate in the theories.
We know that there are complex interactions between the sun and the planets and the planets and their moons and the planets and the other planets. For instance, the documented disturbance in radio communications due to Saturn and Jupiter's position in relation to Earth.
Nelson, John H. "Planetary Position Effect on Short Wave Signal Quality." Electrical Engineering 71, no. 5 ((May 1952): 421-24.
——. "Shortwave Radio Propagation Correlation with Planetary Positions." RCA Review 12 (March 1951): 26-34.
Of course this is not the astrology as practiced today, but does infer that there are interactions we may not fully understand. Just as we may not fully understand what effects may arise from the position of the sun relative to the galactic center.
Back on topic, the graphic of the interconnectedness is cool but I'll have to read more about it to understand that it's not biased in some way by how the data was input or how they chose to create the connections.