From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Dec 10 2002 - 11:54:53 MST
> (Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com>):
> Lee Corbin wrote:
> >
> >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.
>
> "A witty saying proves nothing." I used to believe the eight-year-old
> principle. I really did. Richard Feynman succeeded in explaining the
> theory of little arrows to me when I was nine (Q.E.D.), and I have on
> occasion tried to explain General Relativity to very small relatives...
> ...but eventually, things got complicated.
I have far more problems explaining concepts that an 8-year-old
/would/ be able to get easily but that stubborn 40-year-olds refuse
to accept because they don't jibe with long-held prejudices.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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