Sounds like a failure of imagination, Bob. You said, "Orville was probably talking
about people who were saying at the time that it was impossible for humans to take
flight." Maybe he wasn't. But let's say he was. Just because he WASN'T applying
it beyond his immediate situation doesn't mean NO ONE CAN apply it to their more
up-to-date situation or (gasp) even apply it beyond his/her/our own situation. I am
reminded of how many times (7.3) physicists or other scientists on the cutting edge have
said that we are only this ( ) far from a full grasp of the universe(s) (we don't need to
worry about those little flaws in our theory, a little housekeeping will take care of
them) only to have a significant change happen a few years later, brought about by those
pesky flaws. I don't think we have a very good idea of whether our spectrum of knowledge
occupies 99% of full knowledge (whatever that means) or 1% or a 10,000th of a percent or
asymptotically 0. I personally lean toward the latter end (well, bully for me). Here
are another couple of quotations, both by Arthur C. Clarke that whittle my tilly.
- Mick (my name, not a quotation)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too
intelligent to come here.
Message: 9
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:42:02 -0700
From: Bob Sneidar <b...@twft.com>
To: How to use LiveCode <use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>
Subject: Re: ANN and OT: Calling All SETI Enthusiasts
Message-ID: <DFD226EE-ADE4-4F9B-9FD7-407B2EE780C4@twftcom>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Orville was probably talking about people who were saying at the time that it was impossible for humans to take flight. That is not a statement about what is true, it is a statement about what is possible. It's sobering to think someone so smart as Orville Wright could get the two confused. Is it theoretically possible to travel to another planet? Sure! Is it practically possible? Not a chance. The difference between what is true and what is possible.
Again, it is a matter of logistics. To experiment and build a craft that can
float on air here on terra firma is one thing. To build a craft that can travel
to another planet we cannot see and study from here over the vast period of
time it would take to get there, not to mention the time dilation that would
occur, in one lifetime, and be able to communicate back to say we succeeded,
while the people who sent us are still alive, well, that is quite another. I
can empty my pool with a garden hose, but I'd be a fool to try to empty lake
Erie. I can write a program to keep track of my computer assets. I cannot make
a computer to calculate the answer to life, the Universe, Everything! :-)
Bob
On Mar 27, 2012, at 4:38 AM, Mick Collins wrote:
Talking about presumptuous, Bob, well here's a good quotation to keep in mind.
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really
true, there would be little hope of advance. -- Orville Wright
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