Cancer is not one disease but many diseases.
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead
It was our use of probability theory as logic that has enabled us to do so easily what was impossible for those who thought of probability as a physical phenomenon associated with "randomness". Quite the opposite; we have thought of probability distributions as carriers of information.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Probability theory provides a logical framework that transforms challenges into manageable concepts, contrasting with viewing it merely as randomness.
In this quote, Edwin Thompson Jaynes emphasizes the power of probability theory when approached as a logical tool rather than merely a description of randomness. This perspective allows for deeper insights and manipulation of probability distributions, which serve as vessels of information rather than just enigmatic occurrences. By viewing probability through the lens of logic, complex problems become solvable, illustrating the importance of conceptual understanding in utilizing mathematical frameworks effectively.
Themes
ProbabilityLogicInformationTheoryRandomness
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on statistics, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of understanding probability theory.
Similar quotes
Statistics is the grammar of science.
Karl PearsonRead
If I have put the case of science at all correctly, the reader will have recognised that modern science does much more than demand that it shall be left in undisturbed possession of what the theologian and metaphysician please to term its 'legitimate field'. It claims that the whole range of phenomena, mental as well as physical-the entire universe-is its field. It asserts that the scientific method is the sole gateway to the whole region of knowledge.
Karl PearsonRead
But science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation.
Arthur BalfourRead
You can't tie a rope around the ice sheet. You can't build a wall around the ice sheets.
James HansenRead
When a coil is operated with currents of very high frequency, beautiful brush effects may be produced, even if the coil be of comparatively small dimensions. The experimenter may vary them in many ways, and, if it were nothing else, they afford a pleasing sight.
Nikola TeslaRead