Richard Feynman on the uncertainty of knowledge - video

[Jon]

Richard Feynman on the uncertainty of knowledge. 2:50 video:

Previously:

Richard Feynman explains: What keeps a train on the track?
Richard Feynman on organic food and pseudoscience - video

[mklotz]

One of the first things I learned in college, though not in any classroom, was that most of what is wrong in the world stems from man's need to have an explanation for everything, even if that means conjuring up magical beings with unrealistic capabilities.

Real science doesn't need immediate explanations; packaging observations into an after the fact theory is good enough so long as one is willing to discard that theory as soon as a contradiction is observed and proved genuine.

[Duke_of_URL]

Dr. Richard Feynman was one of the greatest minds America ever produced. It's rare that a physicist must develop his own mathematics to explain his physics, but that is what Professor Feynman did. A brilliant and yet very practical man. The interview with him that showed on PBS back in the 1980's from the BBC Interview was probably THE best interview with a scientist that I've ever watched (and it's not because I was in Physics grad school at the time either!).

[tonyfoale]

I have been a fan since I can remember.

[mklotz]

Some of my favorite Feynman quotes...

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.

The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things.

[IntheGroove]

"What Do You Care What Other People Think?" RF...

[Jon]

@0:27 - I like his subtle jab at the over-exuberance of the all-encompassing theory pushers (like the Theory of Everything).

[tonyfoale]

Some of my favorite Feynman quotes...

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.

The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things.

The last one is my favourite.

[mklotz]

The last one is my favourite.

I wonder what Richard would have had to say if he had lived to see college courses of study like:

social ecology
equine kinesiology

or colleges that grant a BS in music...

https://music.osu.edu/future/undergr...chelor-science

https://www.bachelorstudies.com/BSc/Music/

[Jon]