h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My philosophy is based on the observations of these three men:

W.C. Fields, never a religious type, asked why he was reading the Bible on his deathbed: "Looking for loopholes."

Wittgenstein, in the closing statement of his early work: "What we can't know, we can't talk about." (Not even Wittgenstein seemed to agree with his early work in his later years, but he was wrong.)

Rock critic Lester Bangs, in a posthumous memo to Dave Marsh that opens the collection of his writings, "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung": "Marsh - You know that jive about 'If there's a rock & roll heaven, they must have a hell of a band'? Don't believe it, pal. All the talent went straight to hell. All of it. The big acts up here are Jim Croce, Karen Carpenter, Cass Elliot, and -- especially --- Bobby Bloom. It's a nightmare! If I have to hear that f*****g 'Montego Bay' even one more time, I may kill mysel ... (ahh, s**t, keep forgetting)"

And let's not forget Mark Twain: "When I think of all the disagreeable people whom I know to have gone to a better place, it makes me want to lead a different life."

Can I just say how distressed I am that the swearword in the Bangs quote wasn't considered editorially justified? I find the easiest thing to do is to make up quotes and attribute them to somebody dead (typically Oscar Wilde - everyone misattributes stuff to him, so I don't feel so guilty... ).

Yeah, hopefully everybody understands Lester certainly did not censor anything This new "BBC" policy - no URL's, the little complaint button on every message, etc. - has me feeling like Big Brother is watching.

BBC - Big Brother Cares

it seems to me that artists and scientists alike go through three periods of creative ability (being that creativity makes up a large part of both fields):

1. raw unrestrained/uneducated potential ability/potential/genius.
2. uncomfortable mediocre middle-life conflict of merging experience and that initial genius.
3. refined almost-perfect union of life-experience and creative genius.

IMHO it would be foolish to plainly state something uttered in the first state/period is correct, while stating that something said about it (in the third state/period) is incorrect.

being that most likely (clearly failing at trying to be non-judgemental, i will wager) you are floating somewhere in the second stage yourself..

*looks confused*

Who are you replying to, yitz? And what do you mean??

hey sorry Dice, I was replying to Steve K 's statement about Wittgenstein disagreeing with himself.. sorry i assumed the fact that i responded to that particular mesg would be marked in some way or another.. only belatedly did i realise that wasn't at all the case

I'm taking Yitz' comments as referring to my (tongue-in-cheek) take on Wittgenstein, who in later years backed away from his early work (and I'm flattered to be in one of the three "genius" categories ). I also have confidence in experience - "old age and deceit will beat youth and skill every time" (a racing sailor's comment).

But some examples in science and art seem to beg for attention - the young Einstein postulated a "cosmological constant", then later called it his greatest blunder. Now the concept is making a comeback. Or how about the "mature" Elvis performing in Las Vegas? I'll take the young rockabilly guy, thank you. And it is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for fifteen years.

But the point is taken. I myself used to know everything ...

yep

was once informed that there were more scientists alive today than the total of all who have lived before. then why haven't we arrived at gate of utopia,let alone entered the place?

Some of the scientists are probably like the professor who gave a series of lectures I attended. The topic was economic systems around the planet, and he apparently anticipated hard questions on why most of them don't work. In his opening lecture, he explained that economics is a *social* science, and thus not subject to the same rigor as, say, physics. Reminds me of Harry Truman's line about economists who say, "But on the other hand ...". Truman said he needed some one-armed economists.

We have arrived at the gates of Utopia. All we have to do is survive the next fifty or a hundred years.