Good luck or bad luck?

Once upon a time, there was an old man in China who had one horse and one son. One day, the horse wandered away and was lost. Upon learning this, the neighbours went to the old man and told him they were sorry to hear about his bad luck.

“How do you know it is bad luck?” he asked.

Soon thereafter, the horse returned, and brought back with him many wild horses. Upon learning this, the neighbors again went to the old man, this time congratulating him on his good luck.

“How do you know it is good luck?” he asked.

Having so many horses, the son took to riding, and it so happened that he was thrown from a horse and broke his leg. Once again, the neighbours went to the old man, this time expressing sorrow at his bad luck.

“How do you know it is bad luck?” he asked.

Soon thereafter, a war broke out and the old man’s son, because of the injury, did not have to go to war.

Logic- book

 

“Logic makes our argument rigorous but emotions make them convincing. “

 

There are Two ways to make something simpler – we can forget parts of it, or we can become cleverer so that things that used to seem incomprehensible become clear to us.

 

 

• Scientific Truth
• Mathematical Truth

 

Difference between mathematics and philosophy is that mathematics makes a steady advance, while philosophy continuees to be baffled at problems arleady found at the outset.

The point of medicine

La médecine c’est guérir parfois, soulager souvent, consoler toujours.

‘Turtles all the way down’

After a lecture on cosmology and the structure of the solar system, James was accosted by a little old lady.

“Your theory that the sun is the centre of the solar system, and the earth is a ball which rotates around it has a very convincing ring to it, Mr. James, but it’s wrong. I’ve got a better theory,” said the little old lady.

“And what is that, madam?” inquired James politely.

“That we live on a crust of earth which is on the back of a giant turtle.”

Not wishing to demolish this absurd little theory by bringing to bear the masses of scientific evidence he had at his command, James decided to gently dissuade his opponent by making her see some of the inadequacies of her position.

“If your theory is correct, madam,” he asked, “what does this turtle stand on?”

“You’re a very clever man, Mr. James, and that’s a very good question,” replied the little old lady, “but I have an answer to it. And it’s this: The first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger, turtle, who stands directly under him.”

“But what does this second turtle stand on?” persisted James patiently.

To this, the little old lady crowed triumphantly,

“It’s no use, Mr. James—it’s turtles all the way down.”

Cool quote #22

“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”

— Niels Bohr

Interesting quote

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
'Omar Khayyam'

I think the persians/iranians in the golden age are quite interesting

 

Die Theorie liefert viel, aber dem Geheimnis des Alten bringt sie uns kaum naher.Jedenfalls bin ich uberzeugt, daß der nicht wurfelt.

Kurt Gödel

Kurt Gödel was a brilliant mathematician/logician and created Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. He was also completely crazy and was very paranoid.

Here are some interesting tidbits:

In February of 1951, Godel was hospitalized for delayed treatment of a bleeding duodenal ulcer requiring massive blood transfusions. The undue delay was apparently caused by his distrust of doctors. In February 1978, shortly after Godel’s death, his brother wrote that “My brother had a very individual and fixed opinion about everything. Unfortunately he believed all his life that he was always right not only in mathematics but also in medicine, so he was a very difficult patient for his doctors” (1987:26).

Hao Wang. A Logical Journey: From Godel to Philosophy (Representation and Mind) (Kindle Locations 647-650). Kindle Edition.

Dr. Joseph M. Rampona was for many years Godel’s physician in Princeton, probably from 1935 to 1969. In an interview in May 1986 (see Schimanovich et al. 19957), he said that Godel had refused to go to the hospital to be treated for the ulcer and that they had to ask Einstein to persuade him. The relationship between Godel and Einstein was, according to Rampona, “very very close. I felt that Einstein in his presence was like a blanket for him. He felt confident then. He could really speak to the world at that moment. Einstein was for him a kind of protection.” The very morning when Dr. Rampona put Godel in the hospital, J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the institute, telephoned him and said, “Believe it or not, doctor, but there is the greatest logician since the days of Aristotle!”

Hao Wang. A Logical Journey: From Godel to Philosophy (Representation and Mind) (Kindle Locations 654-655). Kindle Edition.

another tidbit added:

Oskar Morgenstern, who knew Godel well and was also acquainted with Einstein (probably through Godel), wrote to the Austrian government toward the end of 1965 to recommend honoring Godel on his sixtieth birthday:

1.6.2 Einstein has often told me that in the late years of his life he has continually sought Godel’s company, in order to have discussions with him. Once he said to me that his own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ‘to have the privilege to walk home with Godel: [The “late years” probably began in 1951, when Einstein stopped working on the unified theory.]

Hao Wang. A Logical Journey: From Godel to Philosophy (Representation and Mind) (Kindle Locations 956-959). Kindle Edition.

Insane

I cannot comprehend how and why material can achieve consciousness.

We truly embody the awakening of the universe.

And thinking about this drives me insane.