(3089/898) Fuzziness

207) As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Albert Einstein
"Geometry and Experience"
address to the Prussian Academy of Sciences (12/27/1921)
Sidelights on Relativity (1922) [QE]
quoted by Daniel McNeil and Paul Freiberger in
Fuzzy Logic (1992)
and by Fritjof Capra in
The Tao of Physics (1975) [CQ]

208) As complexity rises, precise statements lose meaning and meaningful statements lose precision.

Lofti Zadeh
"Law of Incompatability" (c. 1970)
quoted by Daniel McNeil and Paul Freiberger in
Fuzzy Logic (1992)

209) The great sage [Aristotle] is also rather witty. Why are beautiful women so sought after? "That is a question fit for a blind man to ask." Did someone insult him the other day? "He can hit me too, if he likes, in my absence."

Daniel McNeil and Paul Freiberger
Fuzzy Logic (1992)

210) These "higher" psychological processes in the human being did not fit gracefully and comfortably into the extant machinery for achieving reliable knowledge. This machine, it turned out, was much like something I have in my kitchen called a "disposall," which nevertheless does not really dispose of all things but only of some things. Or to make another comparison, I remember seeing an elaborate and complicated automatic washing machine for automobiles that did a beautiful job of washing them. But it could do only that, and everything else that got into its clutches was treated as if it were an automobile to be washed. I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Abraham Harold Maslow
The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966) posted by Alfred M. Kriman [UAQ] (5/14/1995)

[Note: Aphorised as To a person who has only a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. - quoted by Joseph Weizenbaum in Computer Power and Human Reason (1976). According to Ralph Keyes, the earliest known instance of the idea embodied in this expression came in The Conduct of Inquiry (1964) by Abraham Kaplan: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. [QV]]

211)
Knowing ignorance is strength.
Ignoring knowledge is sickness.

Lao Zi [Lao-tzu or Lao-tse]
Dao De Jing [Tao Te Ching] (The Tao Virtue Book]
(c. 600 B.C.)
quoted by Daniel McNeil and Paul Freiberger in
Fuzzy Logic (1992)

212) If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically He's an underachiever.

Woody Allen
Love and Death (film, 1975) [ODQ]

213) nut, in botany a dry one-seeded FRUIT which is indehiscent (i.e. does not split open along a definite seam at maturity.) Among the true nuts are the acorn, chestnut, and hazelnut. Commonly the word nut is used for any seed or fruit having an edible kernel surrounded by a hard or brittle covering. Thus the peanut pod is actually a legume, the Brazil nut is a seed enclosed with others in a capsule, and the almond is part of a drupe, a type of fruit that includes olives and peaches. Others that are not botanically true nuts are the cashew, coconut, litchi, pecan, pistachio, and walnut.

The New Columbia Desk Encyclopedia (1975)

214) In some cultures, the sight of a woman's nose and mouth are considered irresistibly seductive. In others, the soles of a person's feet are perceived as disgusting beyond comprehension. In mainstream American culture, sex is obscene but violence is television fare for preschoolers. What is acceptable in swimwear is unacceptable in a restaurant. In an elevator we condone contact that would otherwise be actionable in criminal court. Rules of behavior are not absolute; we negotiate them constantly. [...] Immodesty, indecency, obscenity are cultural factors, mutually agreed upon and negotiable. Contrary to the cliche, we don't "know obscenity when we see it"; we decide what obscenity is, sometimes without even seeing it. We are enjoined to "cover our nakedness," but there's considerable disagreement about what our nakedness is. Our noses and mouths? The bottoms of our feet? A lack of trust or mutual respect?

Roger L. Welsch
"Science Lite: The Naked Truth" in
Natural History magazine (9/93)

215) Contrary to common belief, uncertainty is often proportional to the amount of available data rather than in inverse proportion!

Michael Field and Martin Golubitsky
Symmetry in Chaos (1992)

Sources

[CQ] - The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993)
[ODQ] - The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 4th edition (1992)
[QE] - The New Quotable Einstein (2005), Alice Calaprice, ed.
[QV] - The Quote Verifier (2006), Ralph Keyes
[UAQ] - Usenet alt.quotations newsgroup [posted by, date]


Note: "3089/898" is the designation I've given to the project of posting all my collected quotes, excerpts and ideas (3089 of them) in the remaining days of the Bush administration (of which there were 898 left when I began).

As of today, there are 826 days remaining in the administration of the worst President ever.