Elementary, my dear Dr. Holmes! I totally concur with his views that most Big decisions in life are in the province of philosophy and humanity, not physics. For an Oxford mathematician he shows surprisingly good sense! We have many ethical decisions -- who: to marry, to make war on, to provide health for (or not), to execute, to incarcerate, to educate, to abort, or to tax. It’s all about People. Dear, delicate, indestructible, warm, foolish, fallible, infuriating people! Oh Yes, what a piece of work is a Man, in form and moving, how like an Angel, in apprehension how like a God!
These ethical decisions cannot be made by physicists (who really execute very little, and that, often foolishly) and God forefend that they should be made by God’s People. Enter the Philosopher. As a simple mechanic, ignorant of 99.9% of the World’s Wisdom, I am grateful for, and guided by, the thoughts of philosophers on these issues. We are indeed fortunate to have artists, philosophers and physicists.
But, but, but, Friamers would do well to remember that Computation teaches neither Art, nor Philosophy, nor Physics. I habitually started my classes with Picasso’s dictum, “Computers are useless; they only give answers”. It annoyed the students, so served some didactic purpose. My hope was that, in the discussion following, they might propose that what Pablo "might of meant" was that questions are more important than answers.
Peter Lissaman, Da Vinci Ventures
Expertise is not knowing everything, but knowing what to look for.
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