From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Dec 10 2002 - 02:16:40 MST
On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 12:30:15AM -0800, Lee Corbin wrote:
> Hubert writes (in praise of good explanations)
>
> > A neglected form of intelligence and creativity that is not captured with
> > IQ measurement for example is the ability to jump down from the academical
> > horse and explain connections and causalities about black holes in an
> > everyday language without involving three letter words and mathematical
> > formula so that Average Joe might get encouraged to lay aside his horoscope
> > papers and to reinforce this initial knowledge.
>
> Yes, quite so. Also, sometimes I wonder just how well people
> understand things who cannot express what they know in every-
> day language. "Any scientist who cannot explain to an eight-
> year-old what he is doing is a charlatan" ---Kurt Vonnegut in
> Cat's Cradle.
I completely agree. Although sometimes it takes a *patient*
eight-year old, and they are rare. As Esaias Tegner put it,
"what is murkily said is murkily thought" - being able to
explain something clearly also implies that you can understand
it clearly.
As for the sentence Robert took as an example, that was likely
murky just due to terminology, not concept (I hope). There is a
difference between relying on complex or specialised shared
concepts and having a complex train of thought. The sentence
"In vertebrates, IP3Ks phosphorylate the second
messenger Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) to produce
Inositol 1,3,4,5 tetrakiphosphate (IP4)"
is of the first kind, a description of something fairly
straightforward but relying very technical language.
"The Einsteinian constant is not a constant, is not a
center. It is the very concept of variability -- it is,
finally, the concept of the game. In other words, it is
not the concept of something -- of a center starting
from which an observer could master the field -- but
the very concept of the game."
is of the second kind, a complex train of thought whose value
cannot easily be ascertained despite being written in a far
less technical language (although some hidden jargon exists;
the above mess is likely only meaningful within a postmodern
context, and even there I am doubtful if it says something
relevant).
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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