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OT Saturday: Richard Feynman inadvertently but gloriously explores the limits, uses and failings of analogies.
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21 Replies
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Glorious indeed. That was simply… stellar!
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Oh my, the Lawrence bros. are taking over the world. They’re everywhere. 🙂
Stay dry Dan… It’s only gonna rain 40 days and nites…
DRW
David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.com
http://www.ProMax.com
Sales | Integration | SupportDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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so science is a question of faith says he.
So wht doesn’t fcpx work for all -
I had the pleasure of meeting this marvelous human being on a shoot and we stayed in touch for the few years he had left. I have never met another human in this life more accepting (for review) of other people’s ideas. If he saw a flaw in your argument he would cut you to ribbons. But never in a mean way. He thought. He appreciated other thinkers (I don’t kid myself for a minute that he regarded me as such but he was polite enough to disguise that.) This was a man who loved and enjoyed life. And that is, after all, what it is all about.
Tim
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Beautiful exposition on the nature of causation and epistemology, as well as the inherent problem with analogies.
David
AllinOneFilms.com -
Never met him but I purchased his lecture series (back in my engineer days) and his lecture series on tape on Fundamental Physics. A wonderful individual and just incredibly smart. The world is just a tad smaller due to his departure.
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That is not at all what he is saying. He is saying that certain materials have certain properties. And there is no answering why that is because why at its essence is a completely open question. It has nothing whatever to do with faith.
Tim
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I’m familiar with this piece and don’t see it as a “problem with analogies” exposition.
Analogies are a fundamental and essential part of human understanding.
In fact Mr Feynman actually uses the term “analogous” when referring to the magnetic and electrical forces. In this case it was obvious that analogy would have no value to the interviewer. If he were talking to a physics student it would have helped push understanding forward.
Analogies are invaluable short hand for people with a shared base of knowledge.
Analogies are invaluable in communicating abstract concepts to people with no shared base of knowledge – parables for instance.
Analogies fuel music, poetry and literature in general.
The value of any analogy is based on the quality of the comparison being struck and the ability to grasp the cultural/experiential background of the people you’re communicating with.
Saying that there’s something inherently wrong with analogies is like saying there’s something inherently wrong with Italian food or Impressionism.
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[TImothy Auld] “I had the pleasure of meeting this marvelous human being on a shoot and we stayed in touch for the few years he had left. I have never met another human in this life more accepting (for review) of other people’s ideas. If he saw a flaw in your argument he would cut you to ribbons. But never in a mean way. He thought. He appreciated other thinkers (I don’t kid myself for a minute that he regarded me as such but he was polite enough to disguise that.) This was a man who loved and enjoyed life. And that is, after all, what it is all about.
Tim”
What a marvelous pleasure that must have been, Tim. I’ve looked up to and have enjoyed this guy for years. Even in this short piece, simply watching his thought process and the associations he is making as he extemporizes, is inspiring.
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[Jim Giberti] “Analogies fuel music, poetry and literature in general.
The value of any analogy is based on the quality of the comparison being struck and the ability to grasp the cultural/experiential background of the people you’re communicating with.
Saying that there’s something inherently wrong with analogies is like saying there’s something inherently wrong with Italian food or Impressionism.”
I agree completely. I just thought, given our forum’s recent obsession with the validity of analogies, that this piece–thick with precise, beautiful analogies about the difficulty and/or disservice of tossing off vague or false analogies, and about, just generally, the complexity involved in making successful analogies of complicated subjects–was a worthy comment to add to all the recent braying. Plus, I just love the musical thought that spews out of him, with all its themes and variations. He’s just so Baroque.
Plus, I love that he actually gets across what that “feeling” is when you push to magnets together.
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