I disagree. We evolved to orient ourselves in the environment that we operate in. Does a giant squid perceive up / down based on gravity or pressure differences in the water depth..?
> it's like saying that thermometers have nothing to do with temperature
I also disagree with this analogy. Gravity is a force of nature, unlike a thermometer which is a human invention to describe one’s environment.
There's no way to have up and down without gravity. It's meaningless. It's not that gravity can't exist without up and down. Gravity exists independently of anyone perceiving anything. But up and down do not exist without gravity. Either up and down are the perception of gravity, even though indirectly through our perceptual mechanisms, or they don't exist and have no meaning.
Anyway, I'll just accept your points. When I tried to think of an analogy that was as silly as "inflation has nothing to do with price" I failed. I can't think of anything as wrongly silly apparently.
Cheers, it’s been an interesting conversation that actually went on far longer than I actually anticipated.
> But my thermometer analogy is still the same. You can create situations in which thermometers do indeed show something that actually is an indication of something and that something isn't heat. Thermometers are used to measure heat though.
You make a good point here.
> When I tried to think of an analogy that was as silly as "inflation has nothing to do with price" I failed. I can't think of anything as wrongly silly apparently.
Ironically I completely agree that inflation and price are inseparable. To be honest I couldn’t think of an adequate analogy either, it is just silly, everything is a bit ridiculous right now, and it feels a bit absurd that it even needs to be stated that inflation is in fact inseparable from prices.