Quantum computation is a distinctively new way of harnessing nature. It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes.
David DeutschRead
The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Most theories are dismissed due to poor explanations rather than failure in experiments.
David Deutsch highlights an important aspect of scientific inquiry, emphasizing that the rejection of theories is primarily due to their inability to provide satisfactory explanations of the phenomena they aim to describe. This implies that a good theoretical framework is crucial for the acceptance of scientific ideas, beyond just empirical validation through experiments.
Themes
TheoryExplanationScienceExperimental TestsRejection
In practice
Example use cases
In a scientific debate, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of clear explanations in theory validation.
More from David Deutsch
All quotes →Science is objective. And in my view we cannot take any experimental results seriously except in the light of good explanations of them.
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If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.
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Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.
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Discovering a new explanation is inherently an act of creativity.
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To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as a whole.
David DeutschRead
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