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
If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True understanding of a concept is proven by one's ability to implement it practically.
David Deutsch's quote emphasizes that comprehension of an idea is not merely theoretical but practical as well. If one cannot translate a concept into a program, it signifies a lack of deep understanding of that concept, as real mastery enables one to apply knowledge effectively in real-world scenarios, particularly in the field of technology and programming.
Themes
UnderstandingProgrammingKnowledgeImplementationTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a tech seminar, to emphasize the importance of hands-on experience, one might say, 'Remember, if you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.'
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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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
Where we have good, testable explanations, they then have to be tested, and we drop the ones that fail the tests.
David DeutschRead
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