Folklore: Trust Me, I'm An Engineer|Scientist

Truth be told - all professions are to be respected; but not everybody holding a profession deserves the respect extended from his/her job.

There are some statements that irks me incessantly on the Internet. Some examples are:

I'm an engineer, cables makes no difference.
I'm a scientist, what you said cannot be  true.
I'm a scientist, you are wrong.

Statements like this always surface in audiophile discussions when topics like inter-connects, power cables, and the latest craze right now - MQA. There is a very high probability the above statements will appear in any controversial topic where there is strong interest (i.e. lots of clicks), and strong opinions from two opposing extremes.

In my opinion statements like this is a lazy argument - it's often as if the people have run out of things to say, and just throw this into the mix because they can. There are several problems with statements like these.

We are living in a fast paced 24 hour news cycle world where information is almost force fed onto us. There is now so much information on the Web, one can find any information (and misinformation) on just about any topic.

When Internet is still in it's infancy - information are hard to find and even harder to collate.

These days search engines like Google and Social Media like Facebook have revolutionized how people consume information (and misinformation). These Internet giants now know your interests, and habits, and have tailored specific news feeds showing only topics you are interested in.

Increasingly your search results and social platform are showing you only the information that are of interest to you, and filter everything else.

What's the problem with that? Over time this will create a bias, strengthening the things you already believe in as facts, while weakening things you don't as lies or myths. Ergo, the birth of 'fake news'. For some people this form of personalized news feeds create a tunnel vision of sorts, a warped and twisted sense of what is going on in the world.

It's a digital self fulfilling prophecy.

A small group of people will take this warped media presentation as reality and completely take it hook, line and sinker! This is a confirmation bias at work.

I have been silently observing (lurking) an Australia Internet forum. Two topics there pique my interests.

One is talking about 'Audiophile Myths', the other is questioning why musicians don't seem to know about 'high quality' HiFi equipment. In the threads, the people are finding articles on the Internet to support their arguments. As absurd (IMO of course) as some of the points discussed are, they are still OK if you only read the thread on it's own.

However, if you take a step back and combine the ideas of the two discussions together, you'd come up with what could well be a ridiculous observation, and it is:

Musicians have no idea what music is all about. Scientists and engineers do.

Let that sink in for a moment. Perhaps it's not ridiculous after all, there are tons of research suggesting music and maths are one.

Maybe the Audiophiles have it right. Perhaps scientists and engineers do know what music is, and musicians don't.

Hell no!

This idea is so irrational, it's borderline ridiculous. This is why the discussions are in two separate thread. The two realities cannot exist together. People are so focused on the topic at hand, and start taking anecdotal observations, or isolated cases to support their opinions as if they are the norm. Once you take a step back, most of the arguments start to fall apart.

Sure there are people who can excel in both fields - Brian May (e.g. Queen Guitarist  with a PhD in Astrophysics). People like May are are not the norm. In general, musicians are good in music, and the geeks are good at geeking. To suggest a scientist know what music is all akin is to saying a rogue businessman can lead a country.

You don't see any music composed based on blind testing do you?

The next time you see people say things like 'trust me, I'm a Scientist/Engineer'. Don't trust him.