Goal-seeking Neat Ideas are the most dangerous kind. Charles Stross Man kan se det som ett cirkelresonemang eller att det inte finns några lösa trådar. Axel Liljenkrantz "Thought is a disease of the brain. The mind defends itself against the degenerative process of creativity; it begins to jell; notions solidify into inalterable systems." Thomas M. Disch Camp Concentration It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. -- Boris Yeltsin The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) It's important to think. It's what separates us from lentils The Fisher King Sorry, I do not feel anything! If you wish to know what I THINK, then I will answer the question. The very nature of asking people how they feel about an issue allows one to wrap it in fuzzy language, and this is how we got into this mess. So THINK DAMN-IT do not FEEL, this is silicon and not flesh! Andre Hedrick "And so this darkness and terror of the mind Shall not by the sun's rays, by the bright lances of daylight Be scattered, but by Nature and her law." Lucretius, _On the Nature of Things_ (translated by Anthony M. Esolen) Den fege dör tusentals gånger, den modige dör en gång, den smarte dör aldrig. The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave dies just once, the clever never dies. Lo! What a fiend is here, said he. One who sets Reason up for judge Of our most holy mystery. (William Blake) "Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining, and Passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore, let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion!" -- Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet" The Church says the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the Moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church. Ferdinand Magellan Someone once said that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I don't think so. All it takes for evil to triumph is for a society to tolerate the propagation of information that has not been substantiated by empirical evidence. - Andrew Mulcahy on alt.atheism Dogmatism is the software version of lobotomy. Lee Daniel Crocker wrote: > I can't imagine a more complete and precise answer to > the question "for what reason...?" than "none". The > fact that you don't like the answer is /your/ problem, > not the universe's. Gary Snyder, "Three-fourths of philosophy and literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering." "Men may move mountains, but ideas move men." -- M.N. Vorkosigan, per L.M. Bujold Man is a creature of reason and therefore if we are to achieve our true meaning and thereby happiness we are meant to reason. Aristotele Thats the wonderful part about reason, like science, they are self correcting. When reason sees that instinct is reliable in certian circumstances, it incorporates instinct as a tool. Instinct is faster, it can save your life. -Jay Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination. --Albert Einstein Robert S. DeBear, "An Agenda for Reason, Realism, and Responsibility," New York Skeptic (newsletter of the New York Area Skeptics, Inc.), Spring 1988: "Despite its suffix, skepticism is not an "ism" in the sense of a belief or dogma. It is simply an approach to the problem of telling what is counterfeit and what is genuine. And a recognition of how costly it may be to fail to do so. To be a skeptic is to cultivate "street smarts" in the battle forcontrol of one's own mind, one's own money, one's own allegiances. To be a skeptic, in short, is to refuse to be a victim. By 'augmenting man's intellect' we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems. ... We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human 'feel for the situation' usefully coexist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods and high-powered electronic aids. Douglas Engelbart, A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man's intellect. In Paul William Howerton and David C. Weeks, eds, Vistas in Information Handling, volume 1, pages 1-29, Spartan Books, Washinton 1963 Challenge Chimp Thinking Schoolyard behavior resembles adult primate behavior because "Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny" doesn't stop at birth. Mark S. Miller "We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species." -- Desmond Morris Thinkers of the World unite! You have nothing to lose but your confusion, you have a Universe to gain. ASpidle@aol.com Living in a bookshop is like living in a warehouse of explosives. Those shelves are ranked with the most furious combustibles in the world - the brains of men." - Christopher Morley There is a constellation of "magic" words whose function seems to be little more than to "block the road of inquiry." These are the words "Right," "Good," "Beautiful," "True," and most of all, "Natural". dalec@socrates.berkeley.edu Jag är inte så dum att jag tror att allt jag säger är sant. Jag är inte heller så dum att jag tror att inget jag säger är sant. Just Say "Know!" One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's all right not to know anything... That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet." Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996) "The incredible thing about the human mind is that is didn't come with an instruction book." Terry Riley We saw geogenesis promoted to biogenesis, which turned out in the end to be nothing else than psychogenesis...Psychogenesis has led to man. Now it effaces itself, relieved or absorbed by another and a higher function--the engendering and subsequent development of the mind, in one word noogenesis. When for the first time in a living creature instinct perceived itself in its own mirror, the whole world took a pace forward. Teilhard de Chardin If your worst fears are coming true, you're probably not very imaginative. Have you ever heard a suspicious noise in your car and taken it into the service station before there was a breakdown? You anticipated a problem and solved it, saving yourself a major inconvenience. Most of your future problems are both predictable and therefore avoidable. When do most people install a burglar alarm? After a robbery when it's too late. It is true that you can't predict all of your future problems, but you can predict many of them before they happen. Make a commitment to your future. By solving tomorrow's predictable problems today, you will have fewer crises to manage in the present. Source: Technotrends Card Pack, Rule #29 There is nothing rationally desirable that cannot be achieved if rationality itself increases. To war against stupidity! "To know that we know what we know, and that we don't know what we don't know, that is true knowledge". - Confucious - "Most people think once or twice a year. I have made an international reputation by thinking three or four times a week." - George Bernard Shaw "1% of the people think; 9% of the people think they think; and the other 90% would rather die than think." - Thomas Edison These kids today... doing mental calculus, solving the fifth force, wiring their DNA. C.M. Ohlson, quayyachts@coastalnet.com When men and women think, the first step to progress is taken. -Elizabeth C. Stanton Indicator of a man with low self-esteem: a vocabulary lacking the words, "I don't know." Perhaps we'd sleep better at night if we were more awake during the day. Above by Craig Chalquist Skepticism and optimism work REALLY well together. A good dose of both and one will avoid many pitfalls. QueeneMUSE@aol.com "There is No Energy Shortage...There is No Energy Crisis...There is a Crisis of Ignorance." -- R. Buckminster Fuller Scientists are just as capable of self delusion as other human beings. There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear. -- Daniel Dennett There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about. In the end, everybody must understand for themselves. -- Martin-Lof