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The guy who wrote Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance had a problem with the scientific method too: "Through multiplication upon multiplication of facts,
by 0xdeadbeefbabe 13y ago
The guy who wrote Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance had a problem with the scientific method too:
"Through multiplication upon multiplication of facts, information, theories and hypotheses it is science itself that is leading mankind from single absolute truths to multiple, indeterminate, relative ones. The major producer of the social chaos, the indeterminacy of thoughts and values that rational knowledge is supposed to eliminate, is none other than science itself."
I used to think (10 years ago) he was wrong or concerned about something that would happen far in the future beyond my lifespan.
- zafka 13y agoThanks for mentioning this book. I think this book by Robert Pirsig should be on the short list of "Must Reads" of any true hacker
- dredmorbius 13y agoRobert Pirsig. I'm re-reading ZatAoMM now, first time in about 20 years. I'm not entirely convinced that Phaedrus's dilemma poses a true conflict. Science is evolution toward a more complete truth, and it's expected that any given step will be incomplete. Of conflicting or alternate theories, often one will be simpler than the other (Occam's Razor). In other cases, there may be more than one correct answer (wave/particle duality). I don't see either circumstance toppling science.