The Experts Speak

There are experts of all sorts and in all domains, and we often hear them speak about a subject or another, but we seldom hear them make apologies or we simply forget what they said when they were wrong.
Here are some quotes of famous experts, or not famous, or even non-experts but with a political responsibility or an agenda. Those quotes are also giving hope, for there is always something new to discover and something to improve, be it an economical system, a social feature or a bomb! It's very informative and fun at the same time.

Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles. The earth does not have limbs and muscles; therefore it does not move. - Scipio Chiaramonti [Professor of philosophy and mathematics at University of Pisa, arguing against the heliocentrc system, 1633]

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will. - Albert Einstein, 1932.

That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives. - Admiral William Leahy. [Advice to President Truman, when asked his opinion of the atomic bomb project.]

I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Two years later we ourselves made flights. This demonstration of my impotence as a prophet gave me such a shock that ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions. - Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) [In a speech to the Aero Club of France (Nov 5, 1908)]

I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and he seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed. -- Mohandas K. Gandhi, 1940

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done. - Peter Ustinov

Many more here and here. Post the ones you find most astounding or funny !

This line caught my eye.

A nuclear war could alleviate some of the factors leading to today's ecological disturbances that are due to current high-population concentrations and heavy industrial production.

-- Official in the U.S. Office of Civil Defense, 1982

Originally posted by gosseyn

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done. - Peter Ustinov

This one is gold.

This is a great find and a fresh reminder that an open mind is key to human advancement. There will always be those who will say it can't be done, don't let them stop you from trying.

reply to post by theshepherd2


yeah i just created a thread and have had it deleted completely. It was the connection between the MRI scanners, earth, the brain, conciousness and the way negativity is ruining or should i say leading us to ruin.

reply to post by gosseyn

Thank you, I feel i'm really smart after reading all these stupid peoples quotes

love and harmony
Whateva

Here are some more that i like

I am tired of all this thing called science.... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped. -- Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, demanding that the funding of the Smithsonian Institution be cut off, 1861

I can accept the theory of relativity as little as I can accept the existence of atoms and other such dogmas.
-- Ernst Mach, 1913, Austrian physicist and philosopher

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. "Knife" and "pain" are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient. -- Dr. Alfred Velpeau, 1839

Nature intended women to be our slaves. They are our property. They belong to us, just as a tree that bears fruit belongs to a gardener. What a mad idea to demand equality for women! Women are nothing but machines for producing children.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.
-- Grover Cleveland, 1905

Um, wow.

As you read these, bear in mind that our so-called "knowledge" and "science" are as wrong and backward as what you're reading there. We haven't come very far in these few hundred years, though you might kid yourselves otherwise.

Just something to keep in mind....

Originally posted by CosmicEgg
As you read these, bear in mind that our so-called "knowledge" and "science" are as wrong and backward as what you're reading there. We haven't come very far in these few hundred years, though you might kid yourselves otherwise.

Just something to keep in mind....

Yes, and i wonder what kind of stupidities are being said today by 'important' people. Do you think there is less, or more, or just the same? Haven't we learned something since then ? Are we more open-minded today ?

reply to post by gosseyn


Haha! Well...we aren't more stupid, but not less either. The thing is that truth is subjective. People really want it to be absolute but it's not. It's perspective. It's biased. It's experiential. It's malleable. We would really like everything to be concrete and sewn up and neatly packaged, but it's not. What happens if we find out that the world really is resting on the back of the World Turtle? lol You understand what I mean. We seem to go round and round with things: This is true but now it isn't because this is true but now it isn't.... We just go round and round. We seek understanding. We crave knowledge. But we can't see it because we're always trying to be too clever, too knowing, too certain that this and only this is true! We seek validation and confirmation and every other -ation, just so that we won't be laughed at as primitives or worse.

If we simply observe and accept every new situation as a new situation, are we *not* learning or are we giving that experience its due attention? When we observe electrons and they do what we expect, but as soon as we turn our backs on them they misbehave, isn't that really an indication of how we should really live our lives? We should simply focus on what makes us happy. We should just sit back and cruise and be happy.

You know, I read an article recently. I think it was in SciAm, about how certain fungi fix our brains by deactivating those areas and allowing us to finally see what's really in front of us instead of us over-analyzing and over-thinking things. Here is the link. Now *that* is food for thought. Deactivate so you can see clearly. Hmm.. counter-intuitive, isn't it? All the effort we put into shaping our world so that we feel safe is really what keeps us going round in circles.

But that's us to a tee.

I think perception is subjective, but there is an ultimate reality, or truth (the same for me), and we are just not biologically or technologically equipped to see it, or know it, or experience it. Our brain is like a filter that filters and translates reality. There is, all around us and permanently, a complex activity that we can't see or feel, and our brain only receives from that activity a small part, and that small part is not even 'as it is in reality' but it is translated.

And if we find someday that the universe is sitting on the back of a infinitely giant turtle then it is what it is, let's just accept it.

reply to post by gosseyn


Well, yes. The absolute truth is just far too huge for us to process here. But it is absolute. Unfortunately here on planet Earth, we feel compelled to define, quantify, qualify, evaluate, analyze, justify, and rationalize everything into Yes or No. If it's not black then it must be white. We aren't equipped to deal with all answers being yes, no, and everything else too. Few people can even accept that as a possibility. Glad to see you're one of them.

Perception is necessarily subjective. We can empathize, of course, but our own experience is all we can definitively know. Remembering is another thing altogether.

I like this one...

There is little doubt that the most significant event affecting energy is the advent of nuclear power...a few decades hence, energy may be free—just like the unmetered air....
- John von Neumann, scientist and member of the Atomic Energy Commission, 1955.

reply to post by gosseyn

Nice comments.

The hardest thing to admit is that we're wrong about most of the things we think or believe.

I think this is the reason I tend towards a non-absolute reality, or a more relative reality. The life of an ant, for example, has certain absolutes, but by all standards, the life of an ant is not all there is. For example, we can say a lot of things about life as a human on earth. Some of them are close to absolutes. But as for the life of other things in the cosmos and even other life on earth, our statements have less significance and meaning. We can experience powerful emotions and insight, but it's uniquely human and restricted.

Have a look here:


Global information network: Check
Remote surgery: Check
Monkey servants: Check (Helping Hands)
Global information network meeting places (for social reasons): Check (chat rooms, forums, etc)
Working from home via the global information network: Check

I thought his powers of prediction/inference were pretty good.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I am going to play the role of the skeptic regarding what Clarke says in the video :

"Thinking that one day monkeys will replace humans as workers in factories is utter fantasy" - Gosseyn, 2012

"We should stop dreaming about travelling to other star systems, let alone other galaxies, because it will never happen... it is a complete waste of resources and time" - Gosseyn, 2012

"We are alone in the Universe, we should know that by now. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply crazy" - Gosseyn, 2012

"Magical machines that could duplicate everything and anything ? Don't let lazy people make you think that this could be a reality in the future, because this will never happen !"- Gosseyn, 2012