Stargazing Guy

– Richard P. Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 Feb 1988)

From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas — so maybe it’s time to get some more Feynman in our lives?

Credit: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-curious-mr-feynman/

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This is part of a lecture by Feynman from his 1964 Lecture on Physics, from lecture 3. The full quote goes:

“Next, we consider the science of psychology. Incidentally, psychoanalysis is not a science: it is at best a medical process, and perhaps even more like witch-doctoring. It has a theory as to what causes disease—lots of different “spirits,” etc. The witch doctor has a theory that a disease like malaria is caused by a spirit which comes into the air; it is not cured by shaking a snake over it, but quinine does help malaria. So, if you are sick, I would advise that you go to the witch doctor because he is the man in the tribe who knows the most about the disease; on the other hand, his knowledge is not science. Psychoanalysis has not been checked carefully by experiment, and there is no way to find a list of the number of cases in which it works, the number of cases in which it does not work, etc.”

– volume I; lecture 3, “The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences”; section 3-6, “Psychology”; p. 3-8.

Feynman goes on to talk about the physiology of sensation and, what he describes as, the central problem of the mind and/or nervous system. How does it work? We don’t understand how dogs work, and they are easier to understand than ordinary human behaviour.

More quotes taken from The Feynman Lectures on Physics next time.

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PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Remember, hope lives here.

Opening image source: https://www.deviantart.com/bytor137/art/Reddit-Request-Richard-Feynman-369759437

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