Tom Hanks delivers the commencement address for Harvard's class of 2023.
Categories: Harvard; Tom Hanks
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On this date in 1952, a paper by Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow, in an article formally entitled "The Origin of Chemical Elements," was published in the journal Physical Review.
It described a mathematical model whose calculations of the amount of hydrogen and helium in the universe produced by the "Big Bang" and nucleosynthesis matched the actual observable quantities of those elements. It was, in a sense, the first major work to support the controversial Big Bang model since 1929, when Edwin Hubble observed and measured the redshifts of galaxies.
I mention this because it's April Fools' Day, and recognition of the "holiday" spun the brain-fatigued sexagenarian Big Wheel of Bizarre Youthful Flashbacks in my mind, which finally settled on an experience with my high school trigonometry teacher.
Wandering the aisles of the classroom, Mr. Stein noticed the library book on my desk, "One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science" by George Gamow. A renowned theoretical physicist, Gamow was sort of the Neil de Grasse Tyson of his day, presenting complex science topics in ways accessible to the layman.
"Ah, Gamow!" Mr. Stein nodded appreciatively. He then told me the story about the paper, published on April Fools' Day 1952, and how Gamow had a wicked sense of humor. While his friend, Hans Bethe, actually didn't contribute to the paper, Gamow decided to add his name to the work in order to create the droll byline "Alpher, Bethe, Gamow", mimicking the first three letters of the Greek alphabet- α, β, and γ (alpha, beta, gamma). Quite the knee-slapper, eh?
Mr. Stein went to his desk, rummaged around, and produced an actual copy of the journal, which he displayed to me with the pride one might have in posessing an autographed copy of The Shakespeare First Folio (which would indeed be impressive, since the First Folio was published seven years after Shakespeare's death. But I digress.).
He opened the journal to the table of contents, where he had encircled, in red felt-tip pen, the names of the authors. Even at my age at the time (16), I realized he had significantly reduced the value of his prized possession. I also realized I should just look suitably impressed and keep my mouth shut.
Mr. Stein was generally acknowleged, even by his fellow faculty, as a bit of an eccentric. He looked like a stocky Doc Brown from Back to the Future, with a shock of disheveled white hair and the perpetual expression of a person trying to recall the location of his car keys. His sole wardrobe- a grey suitcoat and almost matching pair of pants- while sharp and pressed on Mondays, was an amorphous mass by Friday. Were it a college and not a high school, he would have been easily identified as the prototypical absent-minded professor.
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(It's odd the things that pop into your head after 52 years, when you can't get to sleep because the Shih Tzu snores and chases tiny, grotesque creatures in her sleep, and the little white Maltese/GKW (God knows what) is growling at invisible intruders.)
Categories: April Fools' Day; Big Bang; George Gamow; Hans Bethe; KGB; Ralph Alpher
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Categories: Adam Conover; AI; Artificial Intelligence
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According to This Day in History, on March 27, 1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted "present day Florida." I think they meant to say the shore of what would later be known as Florida.
If he had actually spotted present day Florida, he would have immediately returned to Spain and kept his mouth shut.
Categories: Florida Man
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(Read the original article here. BigThink publishes some wonderful stuff. You can subscribe to their newsletters here).
There's an internet adage that goes, "Debating an idiot is like trying to play chess with a pigeon- it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory." It's funny and astute. It's also deeply, depressingly worrying. Although we'd never say so, we all have people in our lives we think of as a bit dim- not necessarily about everything, but certainly about some things.
Most of the time, we laugh this off. After all, stupidity can be pretty funny. When my friend asked a group of us recently what Hitler's last name was, we laughed. When my brother learned only last month that reindeer are real animals- well, that's funny. Good-natured ribbing about a person's ignorance is an everyday part of life.
Stupidity, though, has its dark side. For theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the stupid person is often more dangerous than the evil one.
The enemy within
In comic books and action movies, we know who
the villain is. They wear dark clothes, kill on a whim, and cackle madly
at their diabolical scheme. In life, too, we have obvious villains- the
dictators who violate human rights or serial killers and violent
criminals. As evil as these people are, they are not the biggest threat,
since they are known. Once something is a known evil, the good of the
world can rally to defend and fight against it. As Bonhoeffer puts it,
"One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be,
prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of
its own subversion."
Stupidity, though, is a different problem altogether. We cannot so easily fight stupidity for two reasons. First, we are collectively much more tolerant of it. Unlike evil, stupidity is not a vice most of us take seriously. We do not lambast others for ignorance. We do not scream down people for not knowing things. Second, the stupid person is a slippery opponent. They will not be beaten by debate or open to reason. What's more, when the stupid person has their back against the wall- when they're confronted with facts that cannot be refuted- they snap and lash out. Bonhoeffer puts it like this:
"Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one's prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical- and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack."
With great power comes great stupidity
Stupidity, like evil,
is no threat as long as it hasn't got power. We laugh at things when
they are harmless- such as my brother's ignorance of reindeer. This
won't cause me any pain. Therefore it's funny.
The problem with stupidity, though, is that it often goes hand-in-hand with power. Bonhoeffer writes, "Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity."
This works in two ways. The first is that stupidity does not disbar you from holding office or authority. History and politics are swimming with examples of when the stupid have risen to the top (and where the smart are excluded or killed). Second, the nature of power requires that people surrender certain faculties necessary for intelligent thought- faculties like independence, critical thinking, and reflection.
Bonhoeffer's argument is that the more someone becomes part of the establishment, the less an individual they become. A charismatic, exciting outsider, bursting with intelligence and sensible policies, becomes imbecilic the moment he takes office. It's as if, "slogans, catchwords and the like... have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being."
Power turns people into automatons. Intelligent, critical thinkers now have a script to read. They'll engage their smiles rather than their brains. When people join a political party, it seems like most choose to follow suit rather than think things through. Power drains the intelligence from a person, leaving them akin to an animated mannequin.
Theory of stupidity
Bonhoeffer's argument, then, is that
stupidity should be viewed as worse than evil. Stupidity has far greater
potential to damage our lives. More harm is done by one powerful idiot
than a gang of Machiavellian schemers. We know when there's evil, and we
can deny it power. With the corrupt, oppressive, and sadistic, we know
where we stand. You know how to take a stand.
But stupidity is much harder to weed out. That's why it's a dangerous weapon: Because evil people find it hard to take power, they need stupid people to do their work. Like sheep in a field, a stupid person can be guided, steered, and manipulated to do any number of things. Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as the mindless puppets who enable it- be they in the general public or inside the corridors of power.
The lesson from Bonhoeffer is to laugh at those daft, silly moments when in close company. But, we should get angry and scared when stupidity takes reign.
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Jonny Thomson teaches philosophy in Oxford. He runs a popular account called Mini Philosophy and his first book is Mini Philosophy: A Small Book of Big Ideas.
Categories: Big Think; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Evil; Stupidity
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