I protest against the use of infinite magnitude ..., which is never permissible in mathematics.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them.
Interpretation
Models and theories may not always accurately represent reality, and success can be achieved even without relying heavily on them.
This quote emphasizes the idea that while models serve as useful tools for understanding complex systems, they are inherently flawed and oversimplified representations of reality. Peter Norvig suggests that in many cases, individuals can achieve success by embracing practical experience and intuition, rather than solely relying on theoretical models, which may not capture the nuances of real-world scenarios.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation about the limitations of scientific models in predicting climate change.
I protest against the use of infinite magnitude ..., which is never permissible in mathematics.
If two scientists are giving their papers at a symposium, and one of them is just naturally better at talking to the public or talking to a group of people, that scientist is liable to get more attention - in fact, I'm told that they do get more attention - than the one who's a little more stiff about it. Well, that's not good for science.
Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not realise my luck and instead will spend my life trying to find flaws in this understanding - such is the role of a scientist.
We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation.
There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.
Every work of science great enough to be well remembered for a few generations affords some exemplification of the defective state of the art of reasoning of the time when it was written; and each chief step in science has been a lesson in logic.
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