The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List |
Quotation of the Day for September 28, 2017"...one of humanity's tragic flaws is to take for granted the gargantuan effort needed to create and maintain even little temporary pockets of order. Again and again, people imagine that, if their local pocket of order isn't working how they want, then they should smash it to pieces, since while admittedly that _might_ make things even worse, there's also at least 50/50 odds that they'll magically improve. In reasoning thus, people fail to appreciate just how exponentially more numerous are the paths downhill, into barbarism and chaos, than are the few paths further up. So thrashing about randomly, with no knowledge or understanding, is _statistically_certain_ to make things worse: on this point thermodynamics, common sense, and human history are all in total agreement. The implications of these musings for the present would be left as exercises for the reader." - Scott Aaronson, quantum computing theorist, 2017-01-01 [http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3075] Submitted by: D. Glenn Arthur Jr. Sep. 23, 2017  |
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