Good Robert Heinlein quote for this site

[mhardy6647]

Bad luck, Charlie Darwin.

I mean... figures.
ol' Chuck had figures.

 

[mhardy6647]

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
Arthur C. Clarke (1962*)
____________________
* New Scientist sez 1973

Clarke's three laws

Clarke's three laws, written by the British science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke, are his observations on the nature of technology and discovery.

www.newscientist.com

 

[Anton D]

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
Arthur C. Clarke (1962*)
____________________
* New Scientist sez 1973

Clarke's three laws

Clarke's three laws, written by the British science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke, are his observations on the nature of technology and discovery.

www.newscientist.com

Not after it is explained.

 

[Axo1989]

"If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.
It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another – but which one?
Differences are crucial." - Robert Heinlein

I think the real originator of this quote (or at least the core idea) was Lord Kelvin ...

... or Oscar Wilde: "numbers are a shield, used by the illiterate to defend against the innumerate"

Spoiler: citation

*or not, I made that up

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Forget Heinlein, I'm going with his rather more eccentric friend, the immortal PKD:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." ― Philip K. Dick

 

[DMill]

This crowd is very cerebral. I like simpler statements like,

if it looks like duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. -Anonymous.

 

[Flaesh]

"Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress." — Ransom K. Fern

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

“... science demands a terrible price - that we accept what experiments tell us about the universe, whether we like it or not.”
― David Brin, Existence.

"For every good idea, ten thousand idiotic ones must first be posed, sifted, sniffed, tried, and discarded. A mind that's afraid to toy with the ridiculous will never come up with the brilliantly original."
— David Brin​

 

[beefkabob]

I prefer quoting Wallace and Gromit.

 

[JaMaSt]

I wonder why they call it that.

Sensus communis
The origin of the term is in the works of Aristotle. The best-known case is De Anima Book III, chapter 1, especially at line 425a27.[9] The passage is about how the animal mind converts raw sense perceptions from the five specialized sense perceptions, into perceptions of real things moving and changing, which can be thought about. According to Aristotle's understanding of perception, each of the five senses perceives one type of "perceptible" or "sensible" which is specific (ἴδια, idia) to it. For example, sight can see colour. But Aristotle was explaining how the animal mind, not just the human mind, links and categorizes different tastes, colours, feelings, smells and sounds in order to perceive real things in terms of the "common sensibles" (or "common perceptibles"). In this discussion, "common" (κοινή, koiné) is a term opposed to specific or particular (idia). The Greek for these common sensibles is tá koiná (τά κοινᾰ́), which means shared or common things, and examples include the oneness of each thing, with its specific shape and size and so on, and the change or movement of each thing.[10] Distinct combinations of these properties are common to all perceived things.[11]

 

[sam_adams]

if it looks like duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. -Anonymous.

"A duck floats in water [bread, apples, very small rocks, cider, gravy, cherries, mud, churches, lead]. If the woman weighs the same as a duck, then she is made of wood. The woman weighs the same as a duck. Therefore, the woman is a witch." - Arthur, King of the Britons

The Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle

 

[benanders]

"A duck floats in water [bread, apples, very small rocks, cider, gravy, cherries, mud, churches, lead]. If the woman weighs the same as a duck, then she is made of wood. The woman weighs the same as a duck. Therefore, the woman is a witch." - Arthur, King of the Britons

The Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle

“…an African [duck], maybe. But not a European [duck].”
The metrical query being how many ducks are required to carry the woman vs. the witch.

 

[mhardy6647]

This crowd is very cerebral. I like simpler statements like,

if it looks like duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. -Anonymous.

Or [Groucho] Marx's corollary:

Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.

OK, not formally avian, but flight-themed, and with an allusion to Sir Arthur Eddington to boot!

Groucho also said

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

But I find myself drifting inexorably off-topic...

 

[mhardy6647]

In my "technology strategy" days, working for a Pfarmaceutical company with a Pfunny name I coined what I, with characteristic modesty, dubbed Hardy's Law of Technology.

There's such a thing as too much technology

A favorite example, which would be perfect if it weren't for its being apocryphal:

This is not to be confused with Hardy's Law

Chaos is Opportunity

 

[benanders]

In my "technology strategy" days, working for a Pfarmaceutical company with a Pfunny name I coined what I, with characteristic modesty, dubbed Hardy's Law of Technology.



A favorite example, which would be perfect if it weren't for its being apocryphal:


View attachment 351626


This is not to be confused with Hardy's Law

During my youth (pre-internet), it was tough to figure why NASA opposed making graphite records. Common sense failed me since I didn’t consider breaking lead outside a gravitational field.
The space pen vs. generic pencil served as good moral “bookends” in the film “Three Idiots.” Great film, even if it had a few scientific inaccuracies.

 

[somebodyelse]

Not after it is explained.

That's where the Geek's Corollary comes in: Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

 

[egellings]

“…an African [duck], maybe. But not a European [duck].”
The metrical query being how many ducks are required to carry the woman vs. the witch.

Duck have to careful to never fly upside down.

 

[Timcognito]

I prefer quoting Wallace and Gromit.

"Tastes just like Wensleydale"

 

[DonR]

That sounds profound without being profound.

A deepity!

 

[antcollinet]

I prefer quoting Wallace and Gromit.

Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese...