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Jim_Baggott

The Copernican Principle

“The Copernican Principle. The universe is not organized for our benefit and we are not uniquely privileged observers. Science strives to remove ‘us’ from the centre of the picture, making our existence a natural consequence of reality rather than the reason for it. Empirical reality is therefore something that we have learned to observe with detachment, without passion. Scientists ask fundamental questions about how reality works and seek answers in the evidence from observation and experiment, irrespective of their own personal preferences, prejudices and beliefs.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 23). Pegasus Books. New York, NY
Keywords: Copernican_quotes Principle_quotes Universe_quotes Observation_quotes Benefit_quotes Privilege_quotes Science_quotes Existence_quotes Consequence_quotes Reality_quotes Causality_quotes Empirical_quotes Detachment_quotes Passion_quotes Fundamental_quotes Question_quotes Answer_quotes Evidence_quotes Experiment_quotes Preference_quotes Prejudice_quotes Belief_quotes

F_Terry_Baker

Code Library

“The most important of these is a development support library which encourages the visibility and manageability of the product, as well as reduces clerical effort on the part of the programmers. The library is typically maintained and operated by a programming librarian who serves to control the programming assets and to provide the necessary services for both programmers and management. As a result of its use, the entire project is maintained in a centralized, up-to-date, visible form which makes its status immediately apparent to code-competent software managers and makes it possible for programmers to answer their questions directly without relying on others.”
  • Source: Baker, F. T. (1975). Software Management Through Improved Programming Technology. ACM ’75: Proceedings of the 1975 Annual Conference, 286–287. https://doi.org/10.1145/800181.810346
Keywords: Programming_quotes Productivity_quotes Library_quotes Source_Code_quotes Important_quotes Development_quotes Support_quotes Encourage_quotes Visible_quotes Management_quotes Product_quotes Reduce_quotes Clerical_quotes Effort_quotes Part_quotes Programmer_quotes Typical_quotes Maintain_quotes Operate_quotes Librarian_quotes Serve_quotes Control_quotes Asset_quotes Provide_quotes Service_quotes Necessary_quotes Result_quotes Use_quotes Entire_quotes Project_quotes Centralize_quotes Up_to_date_quotes Form_quotes Make_quotes Status_quotes Immediate_quotes Apparent_quotes Code_quotes Competent_quotes Software_quotes Manager_quotes Possible_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes Direct_quotes Rely_quotes

Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

Stupidity Liberation

“Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the  people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly.”
  • Source: From the paper “An Account at the Turn of the Year 1942-1943” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, contained within the book “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Volume 8: Letters and Papers from Prison” edited by John W. Gruchy, et al. Published in 2009 by Fortress Press.
Keywords: Stupid_quotes Point_quotes Become_quotes Clear_quotes Act_quotes Liberation_quotes Instruction_quotes Overcome_quotes Term_quotes Fact_quotes Most_quotes Case_quotes Genuine_quotes Internal_quotes Possible_quotes External_quotes Precede_quotes Abandon_quotes Attempt_quotes Convince_quotes Person_quotes State_quotes Affair_quotes Explain_quotes Circumstance_quotes People_quotes Think_quotes Vain_quotes Question_quotes Irrelevant_quotes Responsible_quotes

George_E_P_Box

All Models Wrong

“Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.”
  • Source: George E.P. Box, Co-author with Norman R. Draper, In George E.P. Box and Norman R. Draper, Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces (1987), 74.
Keywords: Model_quotes Approximation_quotes Usefulness_quotes Error_quotes Wrong_quotes Practical_quotes Question_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

When to Stop Testing

“Two of the great questions in developing computer systems are (1) When do we stop testing? and (2) At any point during testing, how far along are we? The second question cannot be answered until the first one has been answered. The first question can be answered by fiat.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 61.
Keywords: Testing_quotes Question_quotes Development_quotes Computer_quotes System_quotes Stopping_quotes Progress_quotes Metric_quotes Completion_quotes Great_quotes Far_quotes Answer_quotes Fiat_quotes

Fred Brooks

People Central

“The central question of how to improve the software art centers, as it always has, on people.”
  • Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (1995). The Mythical Man-Month - Essays on Software Engineering (Anniversary Edition) | 1975/1995 (Anniv.). Boston. MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0201835959. Chapter 16, page 202.
Keywords: Human_Resources_quotes People_quotes Software_quotes Software_Management_quotes Quality_quotes Software_Quality_quotes Project_Management_quotes Art_quotes Central_quotes Question_quotes Improve_quotes Human_quotes

C_West_Churchman

Assumptions

“When one is considering systems it's always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and simple assumptions.”
  • Source: C. West Churchman in the book The Systems Approach (1968), p. ix.
Keywords: System_quotes Question_quotes Obvious_quotes Simplicity_quotes Assumption_quotes Consider_quotes Wise_quotes

William_Kingdon_Clifford

Insufficient Evidence

"To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it-- the life of that man is one long sin against mankind."
Keywords: Wrong_quotes Belief_quotes Insufficient_quotes Evidence_quotes Doubt_quotes Mind_quotes Ignorance_quotes Question_quotes Discussion_quotes Sin_quotes Evil_quotes Humanity_quotes Summarize_quotes Teach_quotes Learning_quotes Persuasion_quotes Suppression_quotes Avoid_quotes Reading_quotes Book_quotes Company_quotes Men_quotes Man_quotes Impious_quotes Easy_quotes Disturb_quotes Life_quotes Mankind_quotes

Alistair_Cockburn

People Characteristics

"People, as active devices, have success modes and failure modes. The following are the main ones that I have named and used to date:
1. People are communicating beings, doing best face-to-face, in person, with real-time question and answer.
2. People have trouble acting consistently over time.
3. People are highly variable, varying from day to day and place to place.
4. People generally want to be good citizens, are good at looking around, taking initiative, and doing 'whatever is needed' to get the project to work.
There are other characteristics that I won’t expand here:
- People need both think time and communicating opportunities...
- People work well from examples...
- People prefer to fail conservatively than to risk succeeding differently; prefer to invent than to research, can only keep a small amount in their heads, and do make mistakes, and find it hard to change their habits.
- Individual personalities easily dominate a project.
- A person’s personality profile strongly affects their ability to perform specific assignments."
Keywords: People_quotes Success_quotes Failure_quotes Communication_quotes Proximity_quotes Real_Time_quotes Question_quotes Consistency_quotes Time_quotes Variability_quotes Citizen_quotes Good_quotes Observation_quotes Flexibility_quotes Altruism_quotes Conservative_quotes Initiative_quotes Project_quotes Risk_quotes Differences_quotes Invention_quotes Innovation_quotes Research_quotes Thinking_quotes Habit_quotes Personality_quotes Ability_quotes Limitation_quotes Consciousness_quotes Cognition_quotes Mistake_quotes Hard_quotes Domination_quotes Assignment_quotes Active_quotes Device_quotes Mode_quotes Beings_quotes Face_quotes Person_quotes Answer_quotes Trouble_quotes Day_quotes Place_quotes Look_quotes Need_quotes Work_quotes Characteristic_quotes Opportunity_quotes Example_quotes Fail_quotes Head_quotes Change_quotes Profile_quotes Affect_quotes Perform_quotes

Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra

Machines Can Think

“The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.”
Keywords: Question_quotes Machine_quotes Thinking_quotes Submarine_quotes Swimming_quotes Artificial_Intelligence_quotes Relevant_quotes

Peter_Drucker

Change as Order

“We no longer even understand the question whether change is by itself good or bad, ... We start out with the axiom that it is the norm. We do not see change as altering the order... We see change as being order itself - indeed the only order we can comprehend today is a dynamic, a moving, a changing one.”
  • Source: Peter F. Drucker, “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World”, New York: Harper & Row, 1959. p. 22.
Keywords: Long_quotes Understanding_quotes Question_quotes Change_quotes Good_quotes Bad_quotes Start_quotes Axiom_quotes Norms_quotes Alteration_quotes Order_quotes Being_quotes Comprehend_quotes Dynamic_quotes Move_quotes

Arthur_Eddington

Brain and Mind

“Take the living human brain endowed with mind and thought. Thought it is one of the indisputable facts of the world. I know that I think, with a certainty which I cannot attribute to any of my physical knowledge of the world. More hypothetically, but on fairly plausible evidence, I am convinced that you have minds which think. Here then is a world fact to be investigated. The physicist brings his tools and commences systematic exploration. All that he discovers is a collection of atoms and electrons and fields of force arranged in space and time, apparently similar to those found in inorganic objects. He may trace other physical characteristics, energy, temperature, entropy. None of these is identical with thought. He might set down thought as an illusion ⎯ some perverse interpretation of the interplay of the physical entities that he has found. Or if he sees the folly of calling the most undoubted element of our experience an illusion, he will have to face the tremendous question, How can this collection of ordinary atoms be a thinking machine?”
Keywords: Brain_quotes Mind_quotes Thinking_quotes Fact_quotes Indisputable_quotes World_quotes Knowledge_quotes Certainty_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Plausible_quotes Evidence_quotes Physics_quotes Tool_quotes Systematic_quotes Exploration_quotes Discovery_quotes Atom_quotes Electron_quotes Field_quotes Space_quotes Time_quotes Energy_quotes Physical_quotes Materialism_quotes Temperature_quotes Entropy_quotes Illusion_quotes Perversity_quotes Interpretation_quotes Interplay_quotes Folly_quotes Experience_quotes Question_quotes Human_quotes Think_quotes Find_quotes Entity_quotes Undoubted_quotes Element_quotes Machine_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Questioning

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ... Don't stop to marvel.”

  • Source: A statement made to William Miller, a Life Magazine editor, recorded in his personal memoirs. Reprinted in LIFE magazine 1955-05-02, in the article entitled “Death of a Genius: His Fourth Dimension, Time, Overtakes Einstein”, page 64. Online at <https://books.google.com/books?id=dlYEAAAAMBAJ>.
Keywords: Question_quotes Curiosity_quotes Spirituality_quotes Reality_quotes Comprehension_quotes Mystery_quotes Reason_quotes Existence_quotes Awe_quotes Contemplate_quotes Eternity_quotes Life_quotes Marvelous_quotes Structure_quotes Holy_quotes Stop_quotes Marvel_quotes

Richard_Feynman

Cargo Cult

“...there have been many experiments running rats through all kinds of mazes, and so on — with little clear result. But in 1937 a man named Young did a very interesting one. He had a long corridor with doors all along one side where the rats came in, and doors along the other side where the food was. He wanted to see if he could train rats to go to the third door down from wherever he started them off. No. The rats went immediately to the door where the food had been the time before. The question was, how did the rats know, because the corridor was so beautifully built and so uniform, that this was the same door as before? Obviously there was something about the door that was different from the other doors. So he painted the doors very carefully, arranging the textures on the faces of the doors exactly the same. Still the rats could tell. Then he thought maybe they were smelling the food, so he used chemicals to change the smell after each run. Still the rats could tell. Then he realized the rats might be able to tell by seeing the lights and the arrangement in the laboratory like any commonsense person. So he covered the corridor, and still the rats could tell. He finally found that they could tell by the way the floor sounded when they ran over it. And he could only fix that by putting his corridor in sand. So he covered one after another of all possible clues and finally was able to fool the rats so that they had to learn to go to the third door. If he relaxed any of his conditions, the rats could tell. Now, from a scientific standpoint, that is an A-number-one experiment. That is the experiment that makes rat-running experiments sensible, because it uncovers the clues that the rat is really using — not what you think it's using. And that is the experiment that tells exactly what conditions you have to use in order to be careful and control everything in an experiment with rat-running. I looked into the subsequent history of this research. The next experiment, and the one after that, never referred to Mr. Young. They never used any of his criteria of putting the corridor on sand, or of being very careful. They just went right on running rats in the same old way, and paid no attention to the great discoveries of Mr. Young, and his papers are not referred to, because he didn't discover anything about rats. In fact, he discovered all the things you have to do to discover something about rats. But not paying attention to experiments like that is a characteristic of cargo cult science.”
  • Source: "Cargo Cult Science", adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 345.
    • Feynman, R. P. (1974). In Feynman, R. P. (1974, June). Cargo Cult Science. Science and Engineering.
Keywords: Cargo_quotes Cult_quotes Experiment_quotes Rat_quotes Maze_quotes Result_quotes Door_quotes Smell_quotes Sight_quotes Sound_quotes Clue_quotes Control_quotes Attention_quotes Ignore_quotes Ignorance_quotes Discovery_quotes Corridor_quotes Food_quotes Train_quotes Immediate_quotes Time_quotes Question_quotes Know_quotes Uniform_quotes Obvious_quotes Different_quotes Paint_quotes Arrange_quotes Texture_quotes Face_quotes Think_quotes Chemical_quotes Change_quotes Run_quotes Realize_quotes Light_quotes Laboratory_quotes Common_quotes Sense_quotes Person_quotes Cover_quotes Floor_quotes Fool_quotes Relax_quotes Condition_quotes Science_quotes Standpoint_quotes Uncover_quotes Careful_quotes Look_quotes History_quotes Research_quotes Refer_quotes Criteria_quotes Sand_quotes Old_quotes Fact_quotes Characteristic_quotes

Henry_Ford

Wages

“There is nothing to running a business by custom – to saying: 'I pay the going rate of wages.' The same man would not so easily say: 'I have nothing better or cheaper to sell than any one has.' No manufacturer in his right mind would contend that buying only the cheapest materials is the way to make certain of manufacturing the best article. Then why do we hear so much talk about the 'liquidation of labour' and the benefits that will flow to the country from cutting wages – which means only the cutting of buying power and the curtailing of the home market? What good is industry if it be so unskillfully managed as not to return a living to everyone concerned? No question is more important than that of wages – most of the people of the country live on wages. The scale of their living – the rate of their wages – determines the prosperity of the country.”
  • Source: Henry Ford. A book. Entitled My Life and Work. Written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Published 1922, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Chapter VIII.
Keywords: Business_quotes Pay_quotes Rate_quotes Wage_quotes Manufacture_quotes Sell_quotes Mind_quotes Buy_quotes Cheap_quotes Material_quotes Liquidation_quotes Labor_quotes Benefit_quotes Cut_quotes Power_quotes Market_quotes Industry_quotes People_quotes Prosperity_quotes Country_quotes Inequality_quotes Nothing_quotes Run_quotes Custom_quotes Say_quotes Man_quotes Easy_quotes Better_quotes Contend_quotes Best_quotes Article_quotes Hear_quotes Talk_quotes Curtail_quotes Home_quotes Management_quotes Living_quotes Question_quotes Important_quotes Scale_quotes Determine_quotes

Yuval_Noah_Harari

Algorithm Interest

“Algorithms are now playing this important role of editors. But the question which interests the algorithms and of human bosses is not what is the truth but what will get user engagement.”
  • Source: Yuval Noah Harari speaking in a YouTube interview with MSNBC television news anchor Ari Melber discussion his book “Nexus”. Published 2024-09-12 on YouTube entitled “MAGA propaganda decoded: Obama’s fave historian shreds Trump tricks with groundbreaking scholarship”, channel “MSNBC”, at 26:45. Online at <https://youtu.be/toF5PIClNZ4?si=5ogXQFnsVW1yhv2R>, retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Algorithm_quotes Role_quotes Editor_quotes Question_quotes Interest_quotes Human_quotes Boss_quotes Truth_quotes User_quotes Engagement_quotes

Stephen_Hawking

God

“It is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God.”
  • Source: Stephen Hawking in his book “The Grand Design”, published by Bantam in 2010). ISBN: 9780553907070.
Keywords: Reasonable_quotes Ask_quotes Creation_quotes Universe_quotes God_quotes Question_quotes Deflect_quotes

Joseph_Heller

Educate People

“It was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.”
  • Source: Heller, Joseph. 'Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition'. Chapter 4 'Doc Daneeka', page 36. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Possible_quotes Necessary_quotes Educate_quotes People_quotes Question_quotes

Donald_Hoffman

Spacetime Deep Enough

“The question is, is spacetime itself a deep enough structure for us to try to boot up consciousness from.”
  • Source: Donald Hoffman, in the YouTube video entitled “Donald Hoffman's New Approach To Consciousness” channel “Dr Brian Keating”. Online at <https://youtu.be/mU_WBela71Y?si=fNfLLsOsUDRDC1XD> posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. In video at 36:10.
Keywords: Question_quotes Spacetime_quotes Deep_quotes Structure_quotes Try_quotes Boot_quotes Consciousness_quotes

Douglas_Hofstadter

Evidence

“'What is evidence?' is not just a philosophical question, for it intrudes into life in all sorts of places. You are faced with an extraordinary number of choices as to how to interpret evidence at every moment.”
  • Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 20. Page 695.
Keywords: Evidence_quotes Philosophy_quotes Question_quotes Intrude_quotes Life_quotes Place_quotes Face_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Number_quotes Choice_quotes Interpretation_quotes Moment_quotes

Grace_Hopper

Information Flood

“We're flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper as quoted in "The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper" by Philip Schieber in OCLC Newsletter, No. 167 (March/April 1987).
Keywords: Information_quotes Knowledge_quotes Artificial_Intelligence_quotes Creativity_quotes Flood_quotes People_quotes Feed_quotes Processor_quotes Human_quotes Intelligence_quotes Forget_quotes Computer_quotes Ask_quotes New_quotes Question_quotes

Millisecond

“I normally drive all of my bosses totally nuts. Because I won't do anything until I understand what I have been told to do. So, when you tell me to do something I start asking questions until I get a clear picture of what I've been told to do... so I naturally said, ‘What's a millisecond?’ Well they told me it's a thousandth of a second, and I had a problem immediately. I can see a second go by on a clock but darned if I could see a thousandth of it. So, I said, ‘Please show me a millisecond.’ And nobody but nobody would show me a millisecond. Time went on with me still fussing 'til somebody stuck a finder in one of my programs and said, ‘Hey, you wasted five microseconds’ and I said ‘So what? What's a Microsecond?’ Well, they told me it's a millionth of a second, and again I had a problem. In the first place I didn't know what a million of anything was. The biggest check I had ever seen was less than a thousand dollars. I didn't know what a million was, and if I didn't know what a million was, I didn't know what a millionth was. And I fussed and fumed because I wanted to know what a microsecond was. I got nowhere. Pretty soon over in the engineering building they started talking about circuits that act in nano seconds, billionths of a second. Well that really had me on the ropes, because in the first place I didn't know what a billion was. I don't think most of those guys up in Washington do either. And if you don't know what a billion is, how on earth do you know what a billionth is? I fussed and fumed. Finally, one morning in total desperation I called over to the engineering building and I said, ‘Please cut off a nanosecond and send it over to me.’ And I brought you some today. Now what I wanted when I asked for a nanosecond was, I wanted a piece of wire which would represent the maximum distance that electricity could travel in a billionth of a second. Of course, it wouldn't really be through wire. It would be out in space at the velocity of light. So, if you start at the velocity of light and use your friendly computer, you discover that a nanosecond is 11.8 inches long/ The maximum limiting distance that electricity can travel in a billionth of a second. Well, I was real[ly] happy with my nanosecond. I looked at it from all angles. I thought about it. I looked at wall switches and counted the distance some of those lights went on. Geez, these may have taken a couple of thousand nanoseconds. Finally at the end of about a week I called back and said, ‘Look. I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond?’ I've only got one microsecond so I can't give you each one. There's a microsecond. 984 feet. I sometimes think we ought to hang one over every programmer's desk so they'll know exactly what they're throwing away when they throw away a microsecond. I hope you all get some of these nanoseconds. I've got lots of them with me. They're absolutely marvelous for explaining to wives and children, and admirals and generals. You may find yourself in a spot where you have to explain why two pieces of equipment have to be close together, Or explain to an admiral why it takes so damn long to send a message via satellite because there are an awful lot of nanoseconds... But I said I wanted to add in 300 picoseconds. Now a picosecond is a thousandth of a nanosecond. The best way to make picoseconds is to get one of those big pepper grinders and you can make picoseconds all over the table.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 40:25.
Keywords: Boss_quotes Do_quotes Understand_quotes Told_quotes Question_quotes Requirements_quotes Millisecond_quotes Microsecond_quotes Nanosecond_quotes Picosecond_quotes Wire_quotes Electricity_quotes Speed_quotes Velocity_quotes Light_quotes Pepper_quotes Grind_quotes Analogy_quotes

Daniel_Kahneman

Intuitive Heuristics

“This is the essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution.”
Keywords: Essential_quotes Intuition_quotes Heuristics_quotes Difficulty_quotes Question_quotes Answer_quotes Easy_quotes Notice_quotes Substitution_quotes

Samuel_Karlin

Purpose of Models

“The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions.”
  • Source: Samuel Karlin, Delivered at the Eleventh R. A. Fisher Memorial Lecture, Royal Society (20 April 1983). In Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither, Statistically Speaking: a Dictionary of Quotations (1996), 140.
Keywords: Purpose_quotes Model_quotes Data_quotes Fit_quotes Sharp_quotes Question_quotes

Pierre-Simon_Laplace

Problems of Probability

“The most important questions of life... are indeed for the most part only problems of probability. Strictly speaking it may even be said that nearly all our knowledge is problematical; and in the small number of things which we are able to know with certainty, even in the mathematical sciences themselves, the principal means for ascertaining truth — induction and analogy — are based on probabilities.”
Keywords: Important_quotes Question_quotes Life_quotes Part_quotes Problem_quotes Probability_quotes Near_quotes Knowledge_quotes Problematical_quotes Small_quotes Number_quotes Thing_quotes Ability_quotes Certainty_quotes Mathematics_quotes Science_quotes Principal_quotes Mean_quotes Ascertain_quotes Truth_quotes Induction_quotes Analogy_quotes Base_quotes

Pearl_and_Mackenzie

Strong AI

“The successes of deep learning have been truly remarkable... Nevertheless, deep learning has succeeded primarily by showing that certain questions or tasks we thought were difficult are in fact not. It has not addressed the truly difficult questions that continue to prevent us from achieving humanlike AI. As a result the public believes that ‘strong AI,’ machines that think like humans, is just around the corner or maybe even here already. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth.”
  • Source: Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie in “The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect”. Published by Basic Books of New York, NY in 2018. Chapter 1, page 30. ISBN 978-0465097616 (ebook).
Keywords: Success_quotes Deep_quotes Learning_quotes Remarkable_quotes Primary_quotes Show_quotes Question_quotes Certain_quotes Task_quotes Thought_quotes Difficult_quotes Fact_quotes Address_quotes Prevent_quotes Achieve_quotes Humanlike_quotes AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Result_quotes Public_quotes Believe_quotes Strong_quotes Machine_quotes Think_quotes Human_quotes Around_quotes Corner_quotes Here_quotes Already_quotes Reality_quotes Nothing_quotes Farther_quotes Truth_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Iterative Simulation Design

“1. A software system can best be designed if the testing is interlaced with the designing instead of being used after the design.
2. A simulation which matches the requirements contains the control which organizes the design of the system.
3. Through successive repetitions of this process of interlaced testing and design the model ultimately becomes the software system itself.
I think that it is the key of the approach that has been suggested, that there is no such question as testing things after the fact with simulation models, but that in effect the testing and the replacement of simulations with modules that are deeper and more detailed goes on with the simulation model controlling, as it were, the place and order in which these things are done.”
Keywords: Software_quotes System_quotes Design_quotes Process_quotes Interlace_quotes Testing_quotes Usage_quotes Simulation_quotes Match_quotes Requirements_quotes Control_quotes Organize_quotes Repetition_quotes Iteration_quotes Model_quotes Key_quotes Approach_quotes Suggestion_quotes Question_quotes After_quotes Fact_quotes Effect_quotes Replace_quotes Module_quotes Deep_quotes Detail_quotes Order_quotes Place_quotes Do_quotes Ultimate_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Computational Mind Probabilistic

“The computational theory thus embraces an alternative kind of computer with many elements that are active to a degree corresponding to the probability that some statement is true or false, and in which the activity levels change smoothly to register new and roughly accurate probabilities. (As we shall see, that may be the way the brain works.) The key idea is that the answer to the question 'What makes a system smart?' is not the kind of stuff it is made of or the kind of energy flowing through it, but what the parts of the machine stand for and how the patterns of changes inside it are designed to mirror truth-preserving relationships (including probabilistic and fuzzy truths).”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 2 Section: The search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.
Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Embrace_quotes Alternative_quotes Kind_quotes Computer_quotes Element_quotes Activity_quotes Degree_quotes Correspondence_quotes Probability_quotes Statement_quotes True_quotes False_quotes Level_quotes Change_quotes Smooth_quotes Register_quotes Rough_quotes Accuracy_quotes Sight_quotes Way_quotes Brain_quotes Work_quotes Key_quotes Idea_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes System_quotes Smart_quotes Stuff_quotes Energy_quotes Flow_quotes Part_quotes Machine_quotes Stand_quotes Pattern_quotes Inside_quotes Design_quotes Mirror_quotes Fuzzy_quotes Truth_quotes Preservation_quotes Mind_quotes

Robert_M_Pirsig

An Experiment is Never a Failure

“An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don’t prove anything one way or another.”
  • Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (1974), 102.
Keywords: Experiment_quotes Failure_quotes Achievement_quotes Prediction_quotes Result_quotes Adequate_quotes Testing_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Question_quotes Data_quotes Produce_quotes Proof_quotes Inconclusive_quotes Way_quotes

Plato

Dreaming

“(Socrates) There's a question you must often have heard people ask - the question what evidence we could offer if we were asked whether in this present instant, at this moment, we are asleep and dreaming all our thoughts, or awake and talking to each other in real life.
(Theaetetus) Yes, Socrates, it certainly is difficult to find the proof we want here. The two states seem to correspond in all their characteristics. There is nothing to prevent us from thinking when we are asleep that we are having the very same discussion that we have just had. And when we dream that we are telling the story of a dream, there is an extraordinary likeness between the two experiences.”
  • Source: Plato, 'Theaetetus' 158bc
Keywords: Dreaming_quotes Reality_quotes Question_quotes Hear_quotes People_quotes Evidence_quotes Present_quotes Instant_quotes Moment_quotes Asleep_quotes Sleep_quotes Thought_quotes Awake_quotes Talk_quotes Real_quotes Life_quotes Difficult_quotes Find_quotes Proof_quotes State_quotes Correspond_quotes Characteristic_quotes Prevent_quotes Think_quotes Discussion_quotes Tell_quotes Story_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Likeness_quotes Experience_quotes Socrates(topic)_quotes Theaetetus(topic)_quotes

Nicholas_Rescher

Inherent Unpredictability

“The inherent unpredictability of future scientific developments — the fact that no secure inference can be drawn from one state of science to another — has important implications for the issue of the limits of science. It means that present-day science cannot speak for future science: it is in principle impossible to make any secure inferences from the substance of science at one time about its substance at a significantly different time. The prospect of future scientific revolutions can never be precluded. We cannot say with unblinking confidence what sorts of resources and conceptions the science of the future will or will not use. Given that it is effectively impossible to predict the details of what future science will accomplish, it is no less impossible to predict in detail what future science will not accomplish. We can never confidently put this or that range of issues outside 'the limits of science', because we cannot discern the shape and substance of future science with sufficient clarity to be able to say with any assurance what it can and cannot do. Any attempt to set 'limits' to science — any advance specification of what science can and cannot do by way of handling problems and solving questions — is destined to come to grief.”
  • Source: Nicholas Rescher, The Limits of Science (1984), 102-3.
Keywords: Inherent_quotes Prediction_quotes Unpredictability_quotes Future_quotes Science_quotes Development_quotes Progress_quotes Inference_quotes Conclusion_quotes State_quotes Causality_quotes Importance_quotes Imply_quotes Issue_quotes Limitation_quotes Meaning_quotes Present_quotes Day_quotes Speak_quotes Principle_quotes Impossibility_quotes Substance_quotes Time_quotes Significance_quotes Differences_quotes Prospect_quotes Revolution_quotes Preclude_quotes Blink_quotes Confidence_quotes Resource_quotes Conception_quotes Detail_quotes Accomplish_quotes Range_quotes Shape_quotes Sufficient_quotes Clarity_quotes Assurance_quotes Attempt_quotes Specification_quotes Advance_quotes Handle_quotes Problem_quotes Solution_quotes Question_quotes Destiny_quotes Grief_quotes Secure_quotes Outside_quotes Discern_quotes

Frank_H_T_Rhodes

Kettle Boiling

“It is not a question of choosing one and thereby rejecting the other; both are necessary in order to do justice to the totality... This is perhaps simply shown by Dr Douglas Spanner's example of the boiling kettle. Why, I may ask, is the kettle boiling? There are two kinds of answer that can be given. One is, it is boiling because energy is being supplied to it in the form of heat and the maximum vapour pressure of the water is now equal to the atmospheric pressure. The other kind of answer which may be given is that the kettle is boiling because I put it on to make a cup of tea. Now these are different answers, the first in terms of immediate causes and the second in terms of ultimate cause. But both are true, both are complementary and not competitive. One answer is appropriate within a particular frame of reference, the other within another frame of reference. There is a sense in which each is incomplete without the other.”
  • Source: Frank H. T. Rhodes in the essay “Christianity in a Mechanistic Universe”, included in the book “Christianity in a Mechanistic Universe and Other Essays” edited by Donald M. MacKay, published by Inter-Varsity Press, Chicago, Illinois, in 1965.
Keywords: Question_quotes Choose_quotes One_quotes Reject_quotes Both_quotes Other_quotes Necessary_quotes Order_quotes Justice_quotes Totality_quotes Perhaps_quotes Simply_quotes Show_quotes Spanner(topic)_quotes Example_quotes Boil_quotes Kettle_quotes Ask_quotes Why_quotes Kind_quotes Answer_quotes Give_quotes Energy_quotes Supply_quotes Form_quotes Heat_quotes Maximum_quotes Vapor_quotes Pressure_quotes Water_quotes Equal_quotes Atmosphere_quotes Make_quotes Cup_quotes Tea_quotes Different_quotes Term_quotes Immediate_quotes Cause_quotes Ultimate_quotes True_quotes Complementary_quotes Competitive_quotes Appropriate_quotes Particular_quotes Frame_quotes Reference_quotes Sense_quotes Each_quotes Incomplete_quotes Without_quotes

Bertrand_Russell

Scientific Method Complicated and Simple

“Scientific method, although in its more refined forms it may seem complicated, is in essence remarkably simply. It consists in observing such facts as will enable the observer to discover general laws governing facts of the kind in question. The two stages, first of observation, and second of inference to a law, are both essential, and each is susceptible of almost indefinite refinement.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell (1931), In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 3.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Refine_quotes Form_quotes Complexity_quotes Simplicity_quotes Essential_quotes Remarkable_quotes Consist_quotes Observation_quotes Fact_quotes Enable_quotes Discovery_quotes Generality_quotes Law_quotes Govern_quotes Kind_quotes Question_quotes Stage_quotes Inference_quotes Susceptible_quotes Indefinite_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes

Carl_Sagan

Science Thinking

“Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of the human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we are up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along. It is a thing that Jefferson laid great stress on. It wasn't enough he said to enshrine some rights in a constitution or bill of rights. The people had to be educated and they have to practice their skepticism and education. Otherwise we don't run the government. The government runs us.”
  • Source: Carl Sagen speaking in an video entitled 'CARL SAGEN - A Way of Thinking' posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/J1cNaFG1VII , at 00:01:25 in video. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
Keywords: Science_quotes Body_quotes Knowledge_quotes Thinking_quotes Truth_quotes Skeptical_quotes Interrogate_quotes Understanding_quotes Human_quotes Fallibility_quotes Question_quotes Tell_quotes Authority_quotes Grab_quotes Charlatan_quotes Political_quotes Religion_quotes Amble_quotes Jefferson_quotes Lay_quotes Stress_quotes Great_quotes Enshrine_quotes Rights_quotes Constitution_quotes Bill_quotes People_quotes Education_quotes Practice_quotes Run_quotes Government_quotes Way_quotes

Rupert_Sheldrake

Empirical Approach

“Science needs to be liberated from these constrictive dogmas of mechanistic materialism... If we go beyond those dogmas, science gets much more interesting. All sorts of new research become possible. New questions can be asked. We can find out more about nature and more about consciousness by doing science in a new more open way. But what remains part of science so crucial to it is the empirical approach. The putting forward of hypotheses, the critical discussion, and the testing of hypotheses by experiment, the scientific method.”
  • Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The video “Nature's Hidden Intelligence: Morphic Fields”. Online at https://youtu.be/qrIlWrGe4w4?t=4894. Posted 2025-01-03. Video offset 1:21:34.
Keywords: Need_quotes Liberate_quotes Constrict_quotes Dogma_quotes Mechanistic_quotes Materialism_quotes Interesting_quotes New_quotes Research_quotes Possible_quotes Question_quotes Ask_quotes Find_quotes Nature_quotes Consciousness_quotes Do_quotes Open_quotes Way_quotes Remain_quotes Part_quotes Science_quotes Crucial_quotes Empirical_quotes Approach_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Critical_quotes Discussion_quotes Test_quotes Experiment_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Method_quotes

John_Steinbeck

All Information Not In

“It is not enough to say that we cannot know or judge because all the information is not in. The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A child's world spreads only a little beyond his understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts outward immeasurably. An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of new questions. So we draw worlds and fit them like tracings against the world about us, and crumple them when we find they do not fit and draw new ones.”
  • Source: John Steinbeck, In John Steinbeck and Edward Flanders Ricketts, Sea of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941), 165-66.
Keywords: Say_quotes Knowledge_quotes Judgment_quotes Information_quotes Process_quotes Gather_quotes Lead_quotes Children_quotes World_quotes Spread_quotes Understanding_quotes Scientist_quotes Thrust_quotes Outward_quotes Immeasurable_quotes Answer_quotes Invariant_quotes Parent_quotes Family_quotes Question_quotes Draw_quotes Fit_quotes Trace_quotes Crumple_quotes Find_quotes

Frederick_Winslow_Taylor

Maximum Prosperity

“It would seem to be so self-evident that maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with maximum prosperity for the employee, ought to be the two leading objects of management, that even to state this fact should be unnecessary. And yet there is no question that, throughout the industrial world, a large part of the organization of employers, as well as employees, is for war rather than for peace, and that perhaps the majority on either side do not believe that it is possible so to arrange their mutual relations that their interests become identical.”
  • Source: F.W. Taylor, 1911. Principles of Scientific Management. New York and London, Harper & brothers. Chapter 1.
Keywords: Employment_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Prosperity_quotes Management_quotes Conflict_quotes War_quotes Cooperation_quotes Maximum_quotes Optimal_quotes Science_quotes Self-evident_quotes Evident_quotes Employer_quotes Couple_quotes Employee_quotes Leading_quotes Object_quotes State_quotes Fact_quotes Unnecessary_quotes Question_quotes Industrial_quotes World_quotes Part_quotes Organization_quotes Peace_quotes Majority_quotes Side_quotes Believe_quotes Possible_quotes Arrange_quotes Mutual_quotes Relation_quotes Interest_quotes Identical_quotes

John_Tukey

Right Question

“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”
  • Source: John Tukey. The future of data analysis. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 33 (1), (1962), page 13.
Keywords: Better_quotes Approximation_quotes Answer_quotes Right_quotes Question_quotes Vagueness_quotes Exact_quotes Wrong_quotes Precision_quotes

Alan_Turing

Can Machines Think

“The question, ‘Can machines think?’ should be replaced by ‘Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?’... The original question, ‘Can machines think?’ I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.”
  • Source: From the paper entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by Alan Turing. Published in 1950 in “Mind”, volume 49, number 236.
Keywords: Turing(topic)_quotes Machine_quotes Question_quotes Can_quotes Think_quotes Replace_quotes Imagine_quotes Digital_quotes Computer_quotes Well_quotes Imitation_quotes Game_quotes Original_quotes Believe_quotes Meaningless_quotes Deserve_quotes Discussion_quotes

Gerald_Weinberg

Truth and Falsehood

“It's not a question of ‘truth’ or ‘falsehood’ ... but of what questions you want answered.“
  • Source: Weinberg, Gerald (2011-06-03). Passive Regulation: General Systems Design Principles (General Systems Thinking) (Kindle Locations 1751-1752). Weinberg & Weinberg. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Truth_quotes Falsehood_quotes Question_quotes Answer_quotes

John_Archibald_Wheeler

It From Bit

“It from bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — at a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe.”
  • Source: John Archibald Wheeler from a paper originally presented at the 1989 Santa Fe Institute workshop. Published in the book "Complexity, Entropy & the Physics of Information: Volume I", edited by Wojciech H. Zurek, section "Physics of information", as a paper entitled "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links". Published in 1993 by the SFI Press Archive Series. ISBN: 978-1-947864-27-6.
Keywords: It_quotes Bit_quotes Symbolize_quotes Idea_quotes Every_quotes Item_quotes Physical_quotes World_quotes Bottom_quotes Deep_quotes Immaterial_quotes Source_quotes Explanation_quotes Call_quotes Reality_quotes Arise_quotes Last_quotes Analysis_quotes Pose_quotes Yes_quotes No_quotes Question_quotes Register_quotes Equipment_quotes Evoke_quotes Response_quotes Thing_quotes Information_quotes Theoretic_quotes Origin_quotes Participatory_quotes Universe_quotes

Alfred_North_Whitehead

Rigid Dogma Destroys Truth

“It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, ‘This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,' that is death. It may be that the mischief comes not from the thinker but for the use made of his thinking by late-comers. Aristotle, for example, gave us our scientific technique ... yet his logical propositions, his instruction in sound reasoning which was bequeathed to Europe, are valid only within the limited framework of formal logic, and, as used in Europe, they stultified the minds of whole generations of medieval Schoolmen. Aristotle invented science, but destroyed philosophy.”
  • Source: Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, as recorded by Lucien Price (1954, 2001), 165.
Keywords: Rigidity_quotes Dogma_quotes Destroy_quotes Truth_quotes Emphasis_quotes Men_quotes Say_quotes Question_quotes Knowledge_quotes Subject_quotes Investigation_quotes Death_quotes Mischief_quotes Come_quotes Thinker_quotes Late_quotes Aristotle(topic)_quotes Example_quotes Logic_quotes Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Technique_quotes Proposition_quotes Instruction_quotes Sound_quotes Reason_quotes Bequeath_quotes Europe(topic)_quotes Validity_quotes Limitation_quotes Framework_quotes Formal_quotes Stultify_quotes Mind_quotes Generation_quotes Medieval_quotes Schoolmen_quotes Philosophy_quotes Method_quotes

Ellis_Leon_Yochelson

Scientists Make Predictions

“Scientists are supposed to make predictions, probably to prove they are human and can be as mistaken as anyone else. Long-range predictions are better to make because the audience to whom the prediction was made is no longer around to ask questions. The alternative... is to make conflicting predictions, so that one prediction may prove right.”
  • Source: Ellis Leon Yochelson. 'Fossils—The How and Why of Collecting and Storing', Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (1969), 82, 597.
Keywords: Scientist_quotes Science_quotes Suppose_quotes Prediction_quotes Probability_quotes Proof_quotes Human_quotes Mistake_quotes Anyone_quotes Long_quotes Range_quotes Better_quotes Make_quotes Audience_quotes Ask_quotes Question_quotes Alternative_quotes Conflict_quotes Right_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Technology Leadership

“The questions that we face today are finally about leadership. Will there be leaders who are able to recognize the historical moment and the choices it presents? Will they find ways to create the organizational conditions in which new visions, new concepts, and a new language of workplace relations can emerge? Will they be able to create organizational innovations that can exploit the unique capacities of the new technology and thus mobilize their organization's productive potential to meet the heightened rigors of global competition? Will there be leaders who understand the crucial role that human beings from each organizational stratum can play in adding value to the production of goods and services? If not, we will be stranded in a new world with old solutions. We will suffer through the unintended consequences of change, because we have failed to understand this technology and how it differs from what came before.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 12. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Leadership_quotes History_quotes Choice_quotes Organization_quotes Vision_quotes Innovation_quotes Workplace_quotes Language_quotes Exploitation_quotes Potential_quotes Competition_quotes Global_quotes Human_Resources_quotes Production_quotes Goods_quotes Services_quotes World_quotes Obsolescence_quotes Change_quotes Suffering_quotes Stranded_quotes Consequence_quotes Unintentional_quotes Failure_quotes Understanding_quotes Differences_quotes Question_quotes Today_quotes Present_quotes Find_quotes Create_quotes Condition_quotes Concept_quotes Relation_quotes Emerge_quotes Unique_quotes Capability_quotes New_quotes Mobilize_quotes Height_quotes Rigor_quotes Leader_quotes Crucial_quotes Role_quotes Human_quotes Stratum_quotes Play_quotes Add_quotes Value_quotes Old_quotes Solution_quotes

Natural Attitude

“The most treacherous enemy of such research is what philosophers call ‘the natural attitude,’ our capacity to live daily life in a way that takes for granted the objects and activities that surround us. Even when we encounter new objects in our environment, our tendency is to experience them in terms of categories and qualities with which we are already familiar. The natural attitude allows us to assume and predict a great many things about each other's behavior without first establishing premises at the outset of every interaction. The natural attitude can also stand in the way of awareness, for ordinary experience has to be made extraordinary in order to become accessible to reflection. This occurs when we encounter a problem: when our actions do not yield the expected results, we are caught by surprise and so are motivated to reflect upon our initial assumptions. Awareness requires a rupture with the world we take for granted; then old categories of experience are called into question and revised.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 13. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Enemy_quotes Research_quotes Natural_quotes Attitude_quotes Capacity_quotes Object_quotes Activity_quotes Environment_quotes Experience_quotes Category_quotes Quality_quotes Familiarity_quotes Assumption_quotes Prediction_quotes Behavior_quotes Premise_quotes Interaction_quotes Problem_quotes Awareness_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Accessibility_quotes Reflection_quotes Thinking_quotes Expectation_quotes Result_quotes Surprise_quotes Motivation_quotes World_quotes Rupture_quotes Question_quotes Revision_quotes Treacherous_quotes Philosopher_quotes Call_quotes Live_quotes Daily_quotes Way_quotes Surround_quotes Outset_quotes Stand_quotes Ordinary_quotes Action_quotes Yield_quotes Initial_quotes
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