Reality quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 Douglas_Adams
- 2 Augustine_of_Hippo
- 3 Marcus_Aurelius
- 4 Jim_Baggott
- 5 Robert_A_Baker
- 6 Claude_Bernard
- 7 Robert_N_Britcher
- 8 Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
- 9 Paul_Davies
- 10 Richard_Dawkins
- 11 René_Descartes
- 12 Albert_Einstein
- 13 Michael_Faraday
- 14 Richard_Feynman
- 15 Yuval_Noah_Harari
- 16 Stephen_Hawking
- 17 Donald_Hoffman
- 18 Sabine_Hossenfelder
- 19 Aldous_Huxley
- 20 Carl_Jung
- 21 David_Kipping
- 22 Seth_Lloyd
- 23 David_E_Nye
- 24 Pearl_and_Mackenzie
- 25 Randy_Pennington
- 26 Steven_Pinker
- 27 Plato
- 28 Pythagoras
- 29 Herbert_Simon
- 30 Albert_Speer
- 31 Anthony_Standen
- 32 Max_Tegmark
- 33 John_Archibald_Wheeler
- 34 Shoshana_Zuboff
Douglas_Adams
Definitive Guide
“The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.”
- Source: Adams, D. (1980). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. New York, NY: Harmony Books.
- Keywords: Reality_quotes Accuracy_quotes Guide_quotes Definitive_quotes Frequent_quotes Inaccurate_quotes
Augustine_of_Hippo
I Am
“But, without any delusive representation of images or phantasms, I am most certain that I am, and that I know and delight in this. In respect of these truths, I am not at all afraid of the arguments of the Academicians, who say, What if you are deceived? For if I am deceived (si fallor), I am (sum). For he who is not, cannot be deceived; and if I am deceived, by this same token I am. And since I am if I am deceived, how am I deceived in believing that I am? For it is certain that I am if I am deceived.”
- Source: St. Augustine of Hippo (c. 400 CE). In ‘The City of God’, book 11, chapter 26.
The World
“I call ‘the world’ whatever seems to me to be such.”
- Source: St. Augustine of Hippo (c. 400 CE). In ‘Against the Academicians’, 3.11.24.
- Keywords: Reality_quotes Perception_quotes Call_quotes World_quotes Seem_quotes
Marcus_Aurelius
Look Upon Reality
“If a man affronts you, do not accept his opinion or think just as he would have you do. No, look upon things as reality presents them.”
- Source: From the book “Meditations” written by Marcus Aurelius, translated by Jeremy Collier, published by Walter Scott, London, England, in 1887. Found in book IV paragraph 11. Originally written circa 170 CE. Retrieved from https://ia804703.us.archive.org/26/items/meditationsofmar00marc/meditationsofmar00marc_bw.pdf 2024-03-02.
- Keywords: Criticism_quotes Man_quotes Affront_quotes Accept_quotes Opinion_quotes Think_quotes Reality_quotes Present_quotes
Jim_Baggott
The Reality Principle
“The Reality Principle. Reality is a metaphysical concept, and as such it is beyond the reach of science. Reality consists of things-in-themselves of which we can never hope to gain knowledge. Instead, we have to content ourselves with knowledge of empirical reality, of things-as-they-appear or things-as-they-are-measured. Nevertheless, scientific realists assume that reality (and its entities) exists objectively and independently of perception or measurement. They believe that reality is rational, predictable and accessible to human reason.”
- Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 8). Pegasus Books, New York, NY.
- Keywords: Reality_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Conception_quotes Science_quotes Knowledge_quotes Epistemology_quotes Empirical_quotes Measurement_quotes Objectivity_quotes Independent_quotes Perception_quotes Belief_quotes Rational_quotes Reason_quotes Prediction_quotes Accessibility_quotes Human_quotes Principle_quotes
The Fact Principle
“The Fact Principle. Our knowledge and understanding of empirical reality are founded on verified scientific facts derived from careful observation and experiment. But the facts themselves are not theory-neutral. Observation and experiment are simply not possible without reference to a supporting theory of some kind.”
- Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 12). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
The Theory Principle
“The Theory Principle. Although physical theories are constructed to describe empirical facts about reality, they are nevertheless founded on abstract mathematical (we could even say metaphysical) concepts. The process of abstraction from facts to theories is highly complex, intuitive and not subject to simple, universal rules applicable to all science for all time. In the act of scientific creation, any approach is in principle valid provided it yields a theory that works.”
- Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 17). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
The Testability Principle
“The Testability Principle. The principal requirement of a scientific theory is that it should in some way be testable through reference to existing or new facts about empirical reality. The test exposes the veracity or falsity of the theory, but there is a caveat. The working stuff of theories is itself abstract and metaphysical. Getting this stuff to apply to the facts or a test situation typically requires wrapping the abstract concepts in a blanket of auxiliary assumptions; some explicitly stated, many taken as read. This means that a test is rarely decisive. When a test shows that a theory is false, the theory is not necessarily abandoned. It may simply mean that one or more of the auxiliary assumptions are wrong.”
- Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 20). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
The Veracity Principle
“The Veracity Principle. It is not possible to verify a scientific theory such that it provides absolute certainty for all time. A theory is instead accepted (or even tolerated), on the basis of its ability to survive the tests and meet additional criteria of simplicity, efficacy, utility, explanatory power and less rational, innately human measures such as beauty. Over time the theory becomes familiar and is accepted as ‘true’ or, at least, as possessing a high truth-likeness or verisimilitude. The scientists’ confidence or degree of belief in the theory grows. It is eventually absorbed into the common body of knowledge which forms the current ‘authorized’ version of empirical reality.”
- Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 22). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
- Keywords: Veracity_quotes Verification_quotes Principle_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Certainty_quotes Acceptance_quotes Tolerance_quotes Ability_quotes Survival_quotes Simplicity_quotes Efficacy_quotes Utility_quotes Explanation_quotes Power_quotes Rational_quotes Human_quotes Measurement_quotes Beauty_quotes Time_quotes Truth_quotes Probability_quotes Likelihood_quotes Verisimilitude_quotes Confidence_quotes Belief_quotes Knowledge_quotes Authority_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes
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
Robert_A_Baker
Ridiculous
“More than ever, the creation of the ridiculous is almost impossible because of the competition it receives from reality.”
- Source: Written by Robert A. Baker in the introduction to the book entitled “A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown: Essays for a Scientific Age”, edited by Robert A. Baker, published in 1963 by Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0138526087.
- Keywords: Creation_quotes Ridiculous_quotes Impossible_quotes Competition_quotes Reality_quotes
Claude_Bernard
Natural Man Arrogant
“Man is by nature metaphysical and proud. He has gone so far as to think that the idealistic creations of his mind, which correspond to his feelings, also represent reality. Hence it follows that the experimental method is by no means primitive or natural to man.”
- Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II page 27. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
- Keywords: Metaphysics_quotes Arrogance_quotes Belief_quotes Imagination_quotes Feelings_quotes Reality_quotes Experiment_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Mind_quotes Man_quotes Natural_quotes Capable_quotes Creation_quotes Express_quotes Identical_quotes Follow_quotes Method_quotes Proud_quotes Ideal_quotes
Robert_N_Britcher
Testing Large Systems
“Many programmers do an adequate job of testing the logic of a single module. But testing an entire system is another matter. Once a module is absorbed into the mass of programs, running as part of the real world, the nature of testing changes.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 57.
Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
Flow
“In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making it more complex. In this growth of the self lies the key to flow activities.”
- Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “Flow Activities”, page 74. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
- Keywords: Flow_quotes Activity_quotes Involve_quotes Competition_quotes Chance_quotes Dimension_quotes Experience_quotes Common_quotes Provide_quotes Sense_quotes Discovery_quotes Creative_quotes Feel_quotes Transport_quotes Person_quotes Reality_quotes Push_quotes Higher_quotes Level_quotes Performance_quotes Led_quotes Previous_quotes Undream_quotes Dream_quotes State_quotes Consciousness_quotes Transform_quotes Self_quotes Make_quotes Complex_quotes Growth_quotes Key_quotes
Daydreaming
“One of the simplest ways to use the mind is daydreaming: playing out some sequence of events as mental images. But even this apparently easy way to order thought is beyond the range of many people... Daydreaming not only helps create emotional order by compensating in imagination for unpleasant reality — as when a person can reduce frustration and aggression against someone who has caused injury by visualizing a situation in which the aggressor is punished — but it also allows children and adults to rehearse imaginary situations so that the best strategy for confronting them may be adopted, alternative options considered, unanticipated consequences discovered — all results that help increase the complexity of consciousness. And, of course, when used with skill, daydreaming can be very enjoyable.”
- Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Flow of Thought”, page 120. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
- Keywords: Simple_quotes Way_quotes Mind_quotes Daydreaming_quotes Play_quotes Event_quotes Mental_quotes Image_quotes Order_quotes Thought_quotes Beyond_quotes Range_quotes People_quotes Help_quotes Emotion_quotes Compensate_quotes Imagination_quotes Unpleasant_quotes Reality_quotes Reduce_quotes Person_quotes Frustration_quotes Aggression_quotes Cause_quotes Injury_quotes Visualize_quotes Situation_quotes Punish_quotes Allow_quotes Reherse_quotes Best_quotes Strategy_quotes Optimization_quotes Confront_quotes Adopt_quotes Alternative_quotes Unanticipated_quotes Consequence_quotes Discover_quotes Result_quotes Increase_quotes Complexity_quotes Consciousness_quotes Use_quotes Skill_quotes Enjoyable_quotes
Paul_Davies
Models and Theories and Reality
"Until now, physical theories have been regarded as merely models with approximately describe the reality of nature. As the models improve, so the fit between theory and reality gets closer. Some physicists are now claiming that supergravity is the reality, that the model and the real world are in mathematically perfect accord."
- Source: P.C.W. Davies, Superforce (1984, 1985), 149.
Richard_Dawkins
Real Poetry
"There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality."
- Source: Dawkins, R. (2007). “There’s real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality.” In Richard Dawkins, The Enemies of Reason, “Slaves to Superstition” [1.01], 13 August 2007, timecode 00:38:16ff.
- Keywords: Poetry_quotes World_quotes Science_quotes Reality_quotes Real_quotes
René_Descartes
I Think Therefore I Am
"I think, therefore I am."
- Source: Descartes, R. (1649). “I think, therefore I am.” In A Discourse of a Method for the Well Guiding of Reason and the Discovery of Truth in the Sciences (p. part IIII, para. 1).
- Notes: Latin: Cogito ergo sum.
- Keywords: Thinking_quotes Existence_quotes Reality_quotes Self_quotes Certainty_quotes
Albert_Einstein
Moon Reality
“I think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of measurements. That is, an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being measured. I like to think the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.”
- Source: Earliest published version found in the 1999 book ‘Words Fail Me’ by Patricia O'Conner, page 41.
- The part about the moon is probably based on Abraham Pais' recollection: "We often discussed his notions on objective reality. I recall that during one walk Einstein suddenly stopped, turned to me and asked whether I really believed that the moon exists only when I look at it". As recalled by his biographer Abraham Pais in Reviews of Modern Physics, 51, 863 (1979): 907.
Science is Primitive
“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”
- Source: Letter to Hans Muehsam (9 July 1951), Einstein Archives 38-408, quoted in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010) by Alice Calaprice, page 404.
- Keywords: Science_quotes Reality_quotes Wisdom_quotes Knowledge_quotes Values_quotes Learn_quotes Life_quotes Primitive_quotes Childlike_quotes Precious_quotes
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>.
Science Objective and Subjective
“Science as something already in existence, already completed, is the most objective, impersonal thing that we humans know. Science as something coming into being, as a goal, is just as subjectively, psychologically conditioned as are all other human endeavors.”
- Source: Albert Einstein, address to the students of UCLA, February 1932.
- Included in Builders of the Universe: From the Bible to the Theory of Relativity, written by Albert Einstein. Los Angeles, CA: U.S. Library Association, p. 91.
Michael_Faraday
Wonderful Dream
“All this is a dream. Still, examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature; and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency.”
- Source: Laboratory/Journal/Writer=Michael Faraday; Entry/Id=#10,040; Entry/Date=1849-03-19; Book/Title=“The Life and Letters of Faraday”; Publication/Date=1870; Volume=II; Page=248; Editor=Henry Bence Jones.
- Notes: This has sometimes been quoted partially as “Nothing is too wonderful to be true”, and can be seen engraved above the doorway of the south entrance to the Humanities Building at UCLA in Los Angeles, California.
- Keywords: Reality_quotes Dreaming_quotes Experiment_quotes Examination_quotes Wonder_quotes Truth_quotes Law_quotes Consistency_quotes Nature_quotes
Richard_Feynman
Imagination Stretched
“Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.”
- Source: Book/Title: “The Character of Physical Law”; Author: Richard Feynman; Publication/Date: 1965; Publisher: MIT Press; Publisher/Location: Cambridge, MA; ISBN: 978-0262533416; Chapter 6; Page 127.
- Keywords: Imagination_quotes Stretch_quotes Fiction_quotes Comprehension_quotes Reality_quotes Utmost_quotes Imagine_quotes
Classical Theory
“... I'm not happy with all the analyses that go with just the classical theory, because nature isn't classical, dammit. And if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and, by golly, it's a wonderful problem because it doesn't look so easy.”
- Source: Article/Title: “Simulating Physics with Computers”; Journal/Name: International Journal of Theoretical Physics; Volume: 21; Publication/Date: 1982; Page: 486.
Yuval_Noah_Harari
Information Reality
“Information is increasingly seen by many philosophers and biologists, and even by some physicists, as the most basic building block of reality, more elementary than matter and energy.”
- Source: Yuval Noah Harari in the book “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI”. Published 2024 by Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Page 3. ISBN: 9780593734247 (ebook).
- Notes: While the “it from bit” position is becoming more acceptable in physics, most physicists still doubt or reject it and believe that matter and energy are the fundamental building blocks of nature, while information is a derived phenomenon.
- See Also:
- Nick Bostrom, “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?,” Philosophical Quarterly 53, no. 211 (2003): 243–55, www.jstor.org/stable/3542867.
- David J. Chalmers, “Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy” (New York: W. W. Norton, 2022).
- Archibald Wheeler’s influential notion of “it from bit”: John Archibald Wheeler, “Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links,” Proceedings III International Symposium on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Tokyo, 1989), 354–68;
- Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregersen, eds., “Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics” (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2014);
- Erik Verlinde, “On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton,” Journal of High Energy Physics 4 (2011): 1–27.
- Yuval_Noah_Harari_quotes
- Yuval_Noah_Harari_quotes/Information_Reality
Information Connects
“Information sometimes represents reality, and sometimes doesn’t. But it always connects. This is its fundamental characteristic.”
- Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 1 page 16. ISBN 978-0593734247.
- Keywords: Information_quotes Represent_quotes Reality_quotes Connect_quotes Fundamental_quotes Characteristic_quotes
Truth
“‘Truth’ is understood as something that accurately represents certain aspects of reality. Underlying the notion of truth is the premise that there exists one universal reality. Anything that has ever existed or will ever exist in the universe.”
- Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 1 page 7. ISBN 978-0593734247.
Fiction and Truth
“Fiction can be made as simple as we like, whereas the truth tends to be complicated, because the reality it is supposed to represent is complicated.”
- Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 2 page 33. ISBN 978-0593734247.
- Keywords: Fiction_quotes Simple_quotes Truth_quotes Complicated_quotes Reality_quotes Represent_quotes
Stephen_Hawking
Correspondence to Reality
“I don't demand that a theory corresponds to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of experiment.”
- Source: During a debate with Roger Penrose in 1994 at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Umiversity Press, p. 121.
- Keywords: Theory_quotes Correspondence_quotes Reality_quotes Knowledge_quotes Testing_quotes Litmus_quotes Prediction_quotes Experiment_quotes Result_quotes
Imaginary Reality
“One might think this means that imaginary numbers are just a mathematical game having nothing to do with the real world. From the viewpoint of positivist philosophy, however, one cannot determine what is real. All one can do is find which mathematical models describe the universe we live in. It turns out that a mathematical model involving imaginary time predicts not only effects we have already observed but also effects we have not been able to measure yet nevertheless believe in for other reasons. So, what is real and what is imaginary? Is the distinction just in our minds?”
- Source: Hawking, Stephen in the book “The Universe in a Nutshell”, p. 59 (2001).
- Keywords: Thinking_quotes Meaning_quotes Imaginary_quotes Mathematics_quotes Game_quotes Reality_quotes World_quotes Viewpoint_quotes Positivist_quotes Philosophy_quotes Determine_quotes Real_quotes Find_quotes Model_quotes Describe_quotes Universe_quotes Live_quotes Involve_quotes Number_quotes Time_quotes Prediction_quotes Effect_quotes Observation_quotes Measurement_quotes Believe_quotes Reason_quotes Distinction_quotes Mind_quotes
Donald_Hoffman
AI Computation
“If we look at an LLM [Large Language Model] or a future AI [Artificial Intelligence], it's going to be some kind of computational system. And computational systems have their limits. We have Gödel who said that at a minimum. I'm betting that you and I are avatars of an infinite intelligence that's the true source of all creativity and that Einstein or any scientist taps into when they come up with their truly original ideas. The first step would be to say, if it's just a computational bias, then it doesn't transcend. It doesn't get to this true originality. But then there's a deeper level... These are just avatars in a particular headset. So why can't we create a new avatar in our headset that looks like a computer that is actually an avatar of the deep intelligence? If we are only going to stick with the computational thing... But somehow the [human] avatar is a portal into the infinite consciousness... And we know one way of creating new portals into this infinite consciousness, and that is having kids. So that is one technology that allows us to do that. Once we understand spacetime as a headset, and we understand the headset and at least some layers of its relationship to the infinite reality, that's the source of true insight and true originality and creativity, could we figure out new ways to open up genuine new portals, and might that look like AI… The jury is out.”
- 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 1:14:40.
- Keywords: Look_quotes LLM_quotes Large_quotes Language_quotes Model_quotes Future_quotes AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Computation_quotes System_quotes Limit_quotes Gödel(topic)_quotes Minimum_quotes Bet_quotes Avatar_quotes Infinite_quotes True_quotes Source_quotes Creativity_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Scientist_quotes Tap_quotes Original_quotes Idea_quotes Bias_quotes Transcend_quotes Deep_quotes Level_quotes Particular_quotes Headset_quotes Create_quotes New_quotes Computer_quotes Actual_quotes Human_quotes Portal_quotes Consciousness_quotes Kid_quotes Technology_quotes Allow_quotes Understand_quotes Spacetime_quotes Relationship_quotes Reality_quotes Figure_quotes Way_quotes Open_quotes Genuine_quotes Jury_quotes
Sabine_Hossenfelder
Closer Reality
“The foundations of physics give us a closer look at reality, but the closer we look at reality, the more slippery it becomes. Our heavy use of mathematics is a major reason. The more the fundamental descriptions of nature have become divorced from our everyday experience, the more we must rely on mathematical rigor. This reliance has consequences. Using math to describe reality means that the same observations can be equivalently explained in many different ways. That’s just because there are many sets of mathematical axioms that will give the exact same predictions for all available data. Thus, if you want to assign 'reality' to one of your explanations, you won’t know which.”
- Source: Hossenfelder, Sabine. Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (p. 74). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
- Keywords: Foundation_quotes Physics_quotes Closer_quotes Reality_quotes Slippery_quotes Heavy_quotes Mathematics_quotes Major_quotes Reason_quotes Fundamental_quotes Description_quotes Nature_quotes Divorce_quotes Everyday_quotes Experience_quotes Rely_quotes Rigor_quotes Consequence_quotes Observation_quotes Same_quotes Equivalent_quotes Explanation_quotes Different_quotes Way_quotes Set_quotes Axiom_quotes Exact_quotes Prediction_quotes Available_quotes Data_quotes Assign_quotes Know_quotes
Aldous_Huxley
Best Art
“In the best art we perceive persons, things and situations more clearly than in life and as though they were in some way more real than realities themselves. But this clearer perception is at the same time less personal and egotistic. Writers who permit their readers to see in this intense but impersonal way exercise an influence which, though not easily definable, is certainly profound and salutary.”
- Source: Aldous Huxley (1936). An essay entitled Writers and Readers within the book The Olive Tree and Other Essays, published by Harper and Brothers, ASIN: B08VNTBLY4.
- Keywords: Best_quotes Art_quotes Perception_quotes Person_quotes Situation_quotes Clear_quotes Life_quotes Reality_quotes Time_quotes Personal_quotes Ego_quotes Writing_quotes Reading_quotes Permission_quotes Exercise_quotes Influence_quotes Impersonal_quotes Definition_quotes Profound_quotes Salutary_quotes
Protect Our Minds
“We protect our minds by an elaborate system of abstractions, ambiguities, metaphors and similes from the reality we do not wish to know too clearly; we lie to ourselves, in order that we may still have the excuse of ignorance, the alibi of stupidity and incomprehension, possessing which we can continue with a good conscience to commit and tolerate the most monstrous crimes.”
- Source: Aldous Huxley (1936). An essay entitled Words and Behavior within the book The Olive Tree and Other Essays, published by Harper and Brothers, ASIN: B08VNTBLY4.
- Keywords: Protection_quotes Mind_quotes Elaborate_quotes System_quotes Abstraction_quotes Ambiguity_quotes Metaphor_quotes Simile_quotes Reality_quotes Wish_quotes Clear_quotes Lie_quotes Excuse_quotes Ignorance_quotes Alibi_quotes Stupidity_quotes Comprehension_quotes Possess_quotes Continue_quotes Conscience_quotes Commitment_quotes Tolerance_quotes Monster_quotes Crime_quotes
Carl_Jung
Insoluble Problems
“I always worked with the temperamental conviction that fundamentally there are no insoluble problems, and experience justified me in so far as I have often seen individuals simply outgrow a problem which had destroyed others. This ‘outgrowing’, as I formerly called it, on further experience was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest arose on the person's horizon, and through this widening of his view the insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded out when confronted with a new and stronger life-tendency. It was not repressed and made unconscious, but merely appeared in a different light, and so did indeed become different. What, on a lower level, had led to the wildest conflicts and to panicky outbursts of emotion, viewed from the higher level of the personality, now seemed like a storm in the valley seen from a high mountain-top. This does not mean that the thunderstorm is robbed of its reality, but instead of being in it, one is now above it. However, since we are both valley and mountain with respect to the psyche, it might seem a vain illusion to feel oneself beyond what is human. One certainly does feel the affect and is shaken and tormented by it, yet at the same time one is aware of a higher consciousness, which prevents one from becoming identical with the affect, a consciousness which takes the affect objectively, and can say, Ί know that I suffer'.”
- Source: Carl Jung, Commentary by Jung on 'The Secret of the Golden Flower'. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com
/mobile/doc /58044038 /Commentary -by-Jung -on-The- Secret -of-the- Golden -Flower.
- Keywords: Conviction_quotes Insoluble_quotes Problem_quotes Experience_quotes Justification_quotes Individual_quotes Growth_quotes Destruction_quotes Consciousness_quotes Interest_quotes Horizon_quotes View_quotes Urgent_quotes Solution_quotes Logic_quotes Life_quotes Repression_quotes Unconscious_quotes Light_quotes Differences_quotes Level_quotes Conflict_quotes Wild_quotes Panic_quotes Emotion_quotes Personality_quotes Storm_quotes Valley_quotes Mountain_quotes Reality_quotes Objectivity_quotes Illusion_quotes Humanity_quotes Torment_quotes Identical_quotes Suffering_quotes
David_Kipping
Parent Reality Different
“If we concede that the possibility that our observations and understanding of physics may in fact be simulated... our knowledge of physics is wholly local to the simulation and may have no real bearing on the constraints that affect a parent reality, whose rules and limitations may be entirely different.”
- Source: David Kipping from the paper “A Bayesian Approach to the Simulation Argument”, published 2020 in the journal ‘Universe’, volume 6, issue 8. DOI:10.3390/universe6080109. Online at https://www.mdpi.com
/2218-1997 /6/8/109 (2025).
- Keywords: Concede_quotes Possibility_quotes Observation_quotes Understand_quotes Physics_quotes Fact_quotes Simulation_quotes Knowledge_quotes Whole_quotes Local_quotes Real_quotes Bearing_quotes Constraint_quotes Affect_quotes Parent_quotes Reality_quotes Rule_quotes Limit_quotes Entire_quotes Different_quotes
Rendered Reality
“Reality could be rendered in real-time locally to deceive the inhabitants, rather than attempting to generate the entire system at once. Indeed, quantum systems need not truly be emulated, only our perceived observations of those systems, which may be far easier.”
- Source: David Kipping from the paper “A Bayesian Approach to the Simulation Argument”, published 2020 in the journal ‘Universe’, volume 6, issue 8. DOI:10.3390/universe6080109. Online at https://www.mdpi.com
/2218-1997 /6/8/109 (2025).
- Keywords: Simulation_quotes Reality_quotes Render_quotes Real_quotes Time_quotes Local_quotes Deception_quotes Inhabitant_quotes Attempt_quotes Generate_quotes Entire_quotes System_quotes Once_quotes Quantum_quotes Need_quotes Emulate_quotes True_quotes Perception_quotes Observation_quotes Far_quotes Easy_quotes
Simulated Time
“Within the simulated realities, time itself is a construct.”
- Source: David Kipping from the paper “A Bayesian Approach to the Simulation Argument”, published 2020 in the journal ‘Universe’, volume 6, issue 8. DOI:10.3390/universe6080109. Online at https://www.mdpi.com
/2218-1997 /6/8/109 (2025).
- Keywords: Simulation_quotes Reality_quotes Time_quotes Construct_quotes
Simulation Depth Limit
“Given... the ensemble of all [simulated] realities that will ever exist, one might wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes... There should exist some limit to how deep the generations can indeed go... This is motivated by the fact the base civilization is truly responsible for simulating all of the daughters beneath it, and it presumably has some finite computational limit at its disposal.”
- Source: David Kipping from the paper “A Bayesian Approach to the Simulation Argument”, published 2020 in the journal ‘Universe’, volume 6, issue 8. DOI:10.3390/universe6080109. Online at https://www.mdpi.com
/2218-1997 /6/8/109 (2025).
- Keywords: Simulation_quotes Reality_quotes Ensemble_quotes Exist_quotes Wonder_quotes Deep_quotes Rabbit_quotes Hole_quotes Limit_quotes Generation_quotes Motivation_quotes Fact_quotes Base_quotes Civilization_quotes True_quotes Responsible_quotes All_quotes Daughter_quotes Beneath_quotes Presume_quotes Finite_quotes Computation_quotes Disposal_quotes
Seth_Lloyd
Information and Computation
“So, just as it is real to say that the universe is made out of electrons and electromagnetic fields and photons and elementary particles, the universe is also really made out of information and the way the universe changes over time is really a computation.”'
- Source: Spoken by Seth Lloyd during a video interview. Contained in a video entitled Seth Lloyd - What is Information?. Posted on Youtube channel Closer to Truth. Posted 2019-12-05. Video location circa 9:30. Online at https://youtu.be/u8VdPW8tCWY.
David_E_Nye
Infinitely Malleable
“The internet continued that process of abstraction, creating an infinitely malleable world. The next step is virtual reality.”
- Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Chapter 11, page 187.
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
Randy_Pennington
Positive Paranoia
“A perpetual state of positive paranoia embraces the reality that there are always changes and circumstances that will derail your success.”
- Source: Randy Pennington in the article “A Perpetual State of Positive Paranoia” published on theHuff Post Contributor platform on 2016-07-19. Retrieved 2025 from https://www.huffpost.com
/entry /a-perpetual-state-of-posi_b_11057574.
- Keywords: Perpetual_quotes State_quotes Positive_quotes Paranoi_quotes Embrace_quotes Reality_quotes Change_quotes Circumstance_quotes Derail_quotes Success_quotes
Steven_Pinker
Neurons to Consciousness
“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
- Source: From the Q&A portion of the lecture From Neurons to Consciousness given by Steven Picker at the New College of the Humanities, 2017. Video available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrVBkxLcqrw&t=4057s (posted 20170309).
- Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes
Stipulation
“But the last dollop in the theory — that it subjectively feels like something to be such circuitry — may have to be stipulated as a fact about reality where explanation stops.”
- Source: Steven Pinker in the book Enlightenment Now. Published in 2018 by Penguin Random House, New York, NY. ISBN:978-0525559023. Chapter 23.
- Notes: Part of the Stipulation Problem of Consciousness.
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
- See Also:
- 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
Pythagoras
All Is Number
“All is number.”
- Source: Motto of the Pythagorean School. http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa
/math /irasasi /Allisnumber.pdf.
- Note: Since all of Pythagoras' original writings (if not all oral) are lost, only second-hand writings from his disciples saying what they claim Pythagoras said are available.
- Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Number_quotes Reality_quotes Computed_Reality_quotes
Herbert_Simon
Satisficer
“The real economic actor is in fact a satisficer, a person who accepts 'good enough' alternatives, not because less is preferred to more but because there is no choice.”
- Source: Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial (Third Edition). Computers & Mathematics with Applications (3rd ed., Vol. 33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780585360102. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed.pdf. Chapter 2, page 29.
Invisible Hand
“In examining the processes of social coordination, economics has given top billing sometimes almost exclusive billing to the market mechanism. It is indeed a remarkable mechanism... The optimality theorems stretch credibility, so far as real-world markets are concerned, because they require substantive rationality of the kinds we found implausible in our examination of the theory of the firm. Markets populated by consumers and producers who satisfice instead of optimizing do not meet the conditions on which the theorems rest.”
- Source: Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial (Third Edition). Computers & Mathematics with Applications (3rd ed., Vol. 33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780585360102. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed.pdf. Chapter 2, page 32-33.
- Keywords: Examination_quotes Process_quotes Social_quotes Coordination_quotes Economics_quotes Top_quotes Bill_quotes Exclusive_quotes Market_quotes Mechanism_quotes Optimal_quotes Theory_quotes Stretch_quotes Credible_quotes Reality_quotes World_quotes Substance_quotes Rational_quotes Plausible_quotes Examination_quotes Firm_quotes Population_quotes Consumer_quotes Producer_quotes Satisfice_quotes Optimization_quotes Condition_quotes Invisible_quotes Hand_quotes
Game Theory
“Game theory's most valuable contribution has been to show that rationality is effectively undefinable when competitive actors have unlimited computational capabilities for outguessing each other, but that the problem does not arise as acutely in a world, like the real world, of bounded rationality.”
- Source: Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial (Third Edition). Computers & Mathematics with Applications (3rd ed., Vol. 33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780585360102. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed.pdf. Chapter 2, page 38.
- Keywords: Game_quotes Theory_quotes Value_quotes Contribution_quotes Rational_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Definition_quotes Competition_quotes Actor_quotes Unlimited_quotes Limitation_quotes Computation_quotes Capability_quotes Guess_quotes Problem_quotes Arise_quotes Acute_quotes World_quotes Reality_quotes Bounding_quotes Rational_quotes Undefinable_quotes Outguess_quotes
Albert_Speer
Departure from Reality
“The departure from reality, which was visibly spreading like a contagion, was no peculiarity... In normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them. which makes them aware they have lost credibility... There were no such corrections, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of distorting mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world.”
- Source: From the book "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer, published 1970 by Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-0-684-82949-4. Chapter 20, page 291.
- Keywords: Depart_quotes Reality_quotes Visibility_quotes Spread_quotes Contagion_quotes Peculiar_quotes Normal_quotes Circumstance_quotes People_quotes Turn_quotes Back_quotes Soon_quotes Straight_quotes Mock_quotes Criticism_quotes Around_quotes Aware_quotes Lost_quotes Credibility_quotes Correction_quotes Belong_quotes Upper_quotes Stratum_quotes Self-Deception_quotes Multiply_quotes Hall_quotes Distort_quotes Mirror_quotes Become_quotes Repeat_quotes Confirmation_quotes Picture_quotes Fantastic_quotes Dream_quotes World_quotes Relationship_quotes Grim_quotes Outside_quotes
Anthony_Standen
First Thing About Physics
“The first thing to realize about physics ... is its extraordinary indirectness.... For physics is not about the real world, it is about “abstractions” from the real world, and this is what makes it so scientific.... Theoretical physics runs merrily along with these unreal abstractions, but its conclusions are checked, at every possible point, by experiments.”
- Source: Anthony Standen, In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 60-62.
Max_Tegmark
Mathematical Computer Game
“The closer I look at things that seemed non-mathematical, like my arm and my hand, the more mathematical it turns out to be. Could it be that our world also then is really just as mathematical as the computer game reality?”
- Source: Youtube The Great Math Mystery - Documentary posted by Aerospace Engineering 2017-03-03.
Mathematical Reality
“Many of my physics colleagues will say that mathematics describes our physical reality, at least in some approximate sense. I go further and argue that it actually is our physical reality because I'm arguing that our physical world doesn't just have some mathematical properties, but it has only mathematical properties.”
- Source: Youtube The Great Math Mystery - Documentary posted by Aerospace Engineering 2017-03-03.
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
Shoshana_Zuboff
Automation and Labor
“Perhaps the most compelling reality that drives managers to a narrowly conceived emphasis on automation is the web of economic logic in which they must operate. Frequently, new expenditures for technology can be justified only as a capital substitution for labor. It is often assumed that whatever was provided by the human contributor can be transferred to the automatic functioning of the machine system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 248. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Automation_quotes Labor_quotes Economics_quotes Logic_quotes Technology_quotes Expenditure_quotes Cost_quotes Justification_quotes Capital_quotes Skill_quotes Knowledge_quotes Compelling_quotes Reality_quotes Drive_quotes Narrow_quotes Conceive_quotes Emphasis_quotes Web_quotes Operate_quotes Frequent_quotes Substitution_quotes Human_quotes Contributor_quotes Transfer_quotes Function_quotes Machine_quotes System_quotes
Information Panopticon Isolation
“In the information panopticon, managers... frequently tried to simplify their managerial tasks by displacing face-to-face engagement with techniques of surveillance and control. As a consequence, they became isolated from the realities of their organizations as they were increasingly insulated by an electronic text that in turn was even more vulnerable to workers' antagonisms.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 400. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Information_quotes Panopticon_quotes Management_quotes Simplification_quotes Engagement_quotes Technique_quotes Surveillance_quotes Control_quotes Consequence_quotes Isolation_quotes Reality_quotes Organization_quotes Insulation_quotes Text_quotes Vulnerability_quotes Worker_quotes Antagonism_quotes Frequent_quotes Try_quotes Displace_quotes Face_quotes Electronic_quotes Turn_quotes
