Letters to the Editor
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I apologize david sugarman
I'm feeling a torrent of emotion. I kind of turned off the physics part of my mind after Larry Summers.
I feel overstimulated now because I do care. I thought I stopped caring about deep thoughts but I still do.
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ARE YOU PEOPLE FOR REAL?
I've just finished reading the letters in response to Dyson's interview on Edge. From the descriptive information about Edge.com, I certainly didn't expect such a load of vituperative nonsense from writers who obviously have no reason to be reviewing such articles.
I find Dyson to be honest in the expression of his ideas in response to questions directed to him by the interviewer. Doesn't mean that I agree or disagree with him. He has as well made significant contributions to the world's knowledge and understanding of the natural universe. I sincerely hope that Edge and others continue seeking interviews and articles about such people.
As to most of the letters written in response, you people need to get real educations and world experience. If any of you had contributed anything of as much value as Dyson and others of his caliber, you might be able to comment as you have, but if you had that much ability - you wouldn't.
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The Advantages of Being Wrong rather than Vague
"It is better to be wrong than to be vague" - Freeman Dyson
The point isn't really that it is wonderful to be wrong (as some other poster seemed to think) but that being vague is even worse.
If you are clear in your thinking then you run a much greater risk of discovering you are wrong. Discovering you are wrong is an opportunity to change your thinking and get closer to the truth. People who are vague in order to avoid the risk of being proven wrong are quite simply intellectual cowards.
I don't agree with all of Dyson's ideas and of course he glosses over quite a few problems but I found the interview to be both interesting and stimulating as I enjoy confronting clear viewpoints that challenge my own thinking.
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See the thing that bothers me in my "single issue"
There are deep thoughts behind cannabinoid science. There's something really deep in there. Deep knowledge about the mind-body conenction, all kinds of relationships in the brain and body that are tied together and unified by the cannabinoid system.
But the War on Drugs has dumbed the country down to the extent that nobody is able to express these deep thoughts or discuss them openly.
And Salon is doing its part to maintain the dumbing down, because this dumbing down is what works best for politics in 2008.
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Silenced, i truly didn't know how much damage larry summers did
you obviously have a heavy IQ, yet you were discouraged by him. your thought are your own, even god has no authority over them, much less larry. as the expression goes, "fuck him!". but when it comes to the *expression* of such thoughts, you have to have a thicker skin. academics are the most snide of individuals, when they want to be the most demeaning, they say your ideas are "interesting".
i'm a sexist old coot of 62, but i raised a daughter (22) who has the confidence of her own opinions and who can express them without being defensive (what is usually referred to as "shrill", but it's more like "clipped"). i'm not trying to make myself great in your eyes, just say how it happened. when rachel was about 6, there was a case, baby jessica, in all the news. she had been adopted off at birth, the father not even notified. after four years, she got married to that man and wanted their baby back. people all over gave their opinions. i, loving my own daughter, took the biological mother's side. rachel said "no, she gave her up! she has no right to her! she should get whatever babies are up for adoption, but not her!". now, i, a biological father-man has one opinion but a child necessarily another. rachel thinks as a child, and the worst thing is for her mother to give her up. as for her solution, that's a kid's idea of how to make it right. i stuck to my guns and she did to hers. i was SO proud of her! we differed but she knew that her own opinion was also valid. one other time i did something good. she wanted me to do something on the VCR(she was about 12 at the time) - i gave her the manual and REFUSED to do it for her. of course she soon became better than i - and made me pay by handing my own words back to me. but girls have to know they can do these things too. i'm trying to find "reasons for success" looking back. one can never *know* the true cause and effect, and besides, we didn't live like prospero and miranda (in the Tempest), there was her mother and her brothers and all the other influences she had. she just has a very healthy attitude and if someone can pick up something, that's all to the good.