OMNI – Q&A: Richard Feynman on the True Meaning of Physics | Hacker News Reader

OMNI – Q&A: Richard Feynman on the True Meaning of Physics

omnimagazine.com

64 pointsdkarapetyan10 comments

But the thing that’s unusual about good scientists is that while they’re doing whatever they’re doing, they’re not so sure of themselves as others usually are. They can live with steady doubt, think “maybe it’s so” and act on that, all the time knowing it’s only “maybe.” Many people find that difficult; they think it means detachment or coldness. It’s not coldness! It’s a much deeper and warmer understanding, and it means you can be digging somewhere where you’re temporarily convinced you’ll find the answer, and somebody comes up and says, “Have you seen what they’re coming up with over there?” and you look up and say “Jeez! I’m in the wrong place!”

It makes me happy whenever I read quotes like this of Feynman's.

I've always found Feynman's unique way of explaining things, no matter the topic, one of the best way of teaching. I'd like to see more "followers" of his method, although you probably need to be Feynman to teach like him... and that's quite hard to replicate.

Minor point in case someone asks: he mentions "Werner’s granular meclosis". I think he might be thinking of a transient mention he heard once of Wegener's granulomatosis, but he's probably just making something up. Sort of like George Lucas might have been naming midichlorians after mitochondria, and misremembered the word, but it didn't really matter, and it's probably better this way in both cases.

Or maybe it's a transcription error.

Midichlorians versus mitochondria, arguably either are actually wretched because he is saying being a Jedi is a genetic gift and no one else is eligible. It's no different than the tradition of being suitable for ruling a country solely by accident of birth via the European Middle Ages monarchies.

Was "force sensitivity" not a concept before Episode I?

I'm a Star Trek guy.

Not outside the mostly deuterocanonical, and sometimes outright apocryphal, "Expanded Universe". I think Episode I was the first time anyone postulated a mechanism.

First, I can't imagine Lucas was confused between the two words. Second, in reply to your point, midichlorians were not used to judge someone's suitability for ruling, and even if they had been that would be a societal attribute of a fictional setting - not a prescription for reality. They were simply a scientific measure of force sensitivity, at least as depicted in the movie. Would it be wrong in your view to associate bigger lungs with increased breath capacity? Again, that is merely a physical attribute.

It's such a treat reading the conversation ...

It was a bongo drum not a conga drum.

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