Sci Math Quotes

There is no such thing as real taste or real smell or even real sight, because there is no true definition of 'real'. There is only information, viewed subjectiveyly, which is allowed by consciousness - human or AI. In the end, all we have is math.

I ask a patient in antenatal clinic how many weeks she is now. There’s a long pause. Cogs turn. A camera slowly pans across a wasteland. Maths isn’t everyone’s strong point, but I’m after the number between six and forty that people must constantly ask her about. Finally: ‘In total?’ Yes, in total. ‘God, I couldn’t even tell you in months . . .’ Has she got amnesia? Is she a clone of another woman currently being held prisoner in an evil sci-fi villain’s lair? I start to ask when her last period was, and she interrupts. ‘Well, I’m thirty-two in June, so that’s got to be more than a thousand weeks . . .

Math is not thinking. Math is procedure. Memory is storage. Thinking is thinking." -- comment from extraterrestrial character, whom books protagonist named "Rocky".

Thursday, March 15, 2007 I ask a patient in prenatal clinic how many weeks she is now. There’s a long pause. Cogs turn. A camera slowly pans across a wasteland. Math isn’t everyone’s strong point, but I’m after the number between six and forty that people must constantly ask her about. Finally: “In total?” Yes, in total. “God, I couldn’t even tell you in months . . .” Has she got amnesia? Is she a clone of another woman currently being held prisoner in an evil sci-fi villain’s lair? I start to ask when her last period was, and she interrupts. “Well, I’m thirty-two in June, so that’s got to be more than a thousand weeks . . .” Christ.

You know the logics setup. You got a logic in your house. It looks like a vision receiver used to, only it's got keys instead of dials and you punch the keys for what you wanna get. It's hooked in to the tank, which has the Carson Circuit all fixed up with relays. Say you punch "Station SNAFU" on your logic. Relays in the tank take over an' whatever vision-program SNAFU is telecastin' comes on your logic's screen. Or you punch "Sally Hancock's Phone" an' the screen blinks an' sputters an' you're hooked up with the logic in her house an' if somebody answers you got a vision-phone connection. But besides that, if you punch for the weather forecast or who won today's race at Hialeah or who was mistress of the White House durin' Garfield's administration or what is PDQ and R sellin' for today, that comes on the screen too. The relays in the tank do it. The tank is a big buildin' full of all the facts in creation an' all the recorded telecasts that ever was made—an' it's hooked in with all the other tanks all over the country—an' everything you wanna know or see or hear, you punch for it an' you get it. Very convenient. Also it does math for you, an' keeps books, an' acts as consultin' chemist, physicist, astronomer, an' tea-leaf reader, with a "Advice to the Lovelorn" thrown in. The only thing it won't do is tell you exactly what your wife meant when she said, "Oh, you think so, do you?" in that peculiar kinda voice. Logics don't work good on women. Only on things that make sense. (1949)

Physicists study the vast number of stars, examining equations and mathematical odds, and say there must be something else out there like us. Biologists look down at our own planet, at all the specific things that occurred for evolution to work, and say, ‘not likely.’ It’s not a math equation, but if it were, the sheer odds of other sentient life even remotely like us are incalculable—even in the vastness of outer space.

everyone can love art, music, poetry, politics, engineering, science, and math all at the same time.

That’s why they don’t teach you the humanities. As long as your education is restricted to analytical subjects, your minds are not a threat to them.” “I have a starflail,” Alex objected. “Unlimited power.” “But the Rulers have programmed you. Now calm down,” she added, seeing how angry this statement made him. “Not by putting something into your brain, but by keeping something out. They’ve held back critical information, knowledge they themselves possess. Until that deficiency is corrected they continue to control how you think.” “I have freedom of action,” Alex persisted. “But you don’t know how to use it. Students on free worlds have a choice. A boy studies math and science if he wants to become an engineer or a researcher. He studies the humanities if he wants to become a leader. As it should be. One prerequisite for leadership is that a man understand himself, something math and science can’t help with. That’s why a future leader studies history and stories and art: these subjects help him understand humanity in general and himself in particular. You have to decide what you want to do here, Alex. If making robots is all you’re interested in, science will get you through. If you want to lead a revolution, you’re going to need a real education.

But what happened, it was almost as if I were a theologian proving that there was no God. Not just fearing it, but knowing it for a fact. [...] It's a feeling I can't convey to you. It was something that I believed deeply, implicitly, and it's not true, and I'm the one who demonstrated it.

We’re going to need some caffeine and a lot of math.