/sci/ - Science & Math

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CHARLES C. LAURITSEN LABORATORY OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS

October 14, 1985

Dr. Stephen Wolfram
School of Natural Sciences
The Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ 08540

Dear Wolfram:

1. It is not my opinion that the present organizational structure of science inhibits "complexity research" - I do not believe such an institution is necessary.

2. You say you want to create your own environment - but you will not be doing that: you will create (perhaps!) an environment that you might like to work in - but you will not be working in this environment - you will be administering it - and the administration environment is not what you seek - is it? You won't enjoy administrating people because you won’t succeed in it.

You don’t understand "ordinary people." To you they are "stupid fools" - so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience - but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way.

Find a way to do your research with as little contact with non-technical people as possible, with one exception, fall madly in love! That is my advice, my friend.

Sincerely,

(Signed, 'Richard P. Feynman')

Richard P. Feynman

RPF;ht

>>3442771
>>3442782

Nope, valid example. You're struggling to downplay his contributions because he doesn't fit with your narrative.

What of the 93% of scientists in the NAS who are atheists? They are in the NAS in the first place because they're the best of the best. Non-NAS scientists average 60% atheist. Therefore the cream of the crop in science has a higher tendency to be atheistic.

Pic related, Richard Feynman, also an atheist.

Michael Argyle, 1958
Concluded that "although intelligent children grasp religious concepts earlier, they are also the first to doubt the truth of religion, and intelligent students are much less likely to accept orthodox beliefs."

Jeffrey Hadden, 1963
Found no correlation between intelligence and grades. This was an anomalous finding, since GPA corresponds closely with intelligence. Other factors may have influenced the results at the University of Wisconsin.

Young, Dustin and Holtzman, 1966
Average religiosity decreased as GPA rose.

James Trent, 1967
Polled 1400 college seniors. Found little difference, but high-ability students in his sample group were over-represented.

Plant and E. Minium, 1967
The more intelligent students were less religious, both before entering college and after 2 years of college.

Robert Wuthnow, 1978
Of 532 students, 37 percent of Christians, 58 percent of apostates, and 53 percent of non-religious scored above average on SATs.

Hastings and Hoge, 1967, 1974
Polled 200 college students and found no significant correlations.

Norman Poythress, 1975
Mean SATs for strongly anti-religious (1148), moderately anti-religious (1119), slightly anti-religious (1108), and religious (1022).

Wiebe and Fleck, 1980
Studied 158 male and female Canadian university students. They reported "nonreligious S's tended to be strongly intelligent" and "more intelligent than religious S's."

>>3254027

>>One of my favorite quotes:

>>"I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb."
>>- Richard Feynman

One of mine:

"God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand."
- Richard Feynman

:)

>>3241320

as much as Feynman hated very modern theories like string theory (which seems to be all theoreticians are working on these days), he did start to learn it very late in his life.
i think Feynman would bring a massive amount of his physical intuition and brilliance to the field, things that are in high demand and much lacking today - things that Gell-Mann envied.

i think he would do wonderfully at picking up and working on string theory/modern physics. don't discount the achievements he made in quantum mechanics. his Feynman Diagrams alone saved everyone's asses when no one could compute the results of the QM equations.

not to say that Newton isn't a fantastic choice. it is really a though decision, given all that Newton did.
to me, they are tied. but Feynman would definitely fuck A LOT more women, so i'm gonna give him my vote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Feynman#Education
>IQ 125
Is this true? If it is, that's pretty motivating and inspiring. Also, check out those doubles jiggling against each other.

How's it jiggling, /sci/?

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." - Albert Einstein

"God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand." - Richard P. Feynman

"There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking

Religious people:
[ ] Told
[ ] Super told
[X] No Country For Told Men

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." - Albert Einstein

"God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand." - Richard P. Feynman

"There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking

Religious people:
[ ] Told
[ ] Super told
[ ] No Country For Told Men

highly overated