Hi,
You should try working in a patent library for a few months. You'd be amazed at how many ideas are conceived that violate the conservation of energy (much less the change in entropy). And people have been conceiving flying horses for millenia, but the square-cube law stays in place.
But it also fails to educate them on how to evaluate the products of their imagination. I think this is the root cause of the shift from science fiction (which should at least be plausible) to fantasy. And the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality ... never mind.
Nope, that's a canard.
--Pete
(01-20-2011, 03:54 PM)kandrathe Wrote: Once you conceive it is in the realm of physical possibility, ...
You should try working in a patent library for a few months. You'd be amazed at how many ideas are conceived that violate the conservation of energy (much less the change in entropy). And people have been conceiving flying horses for millenia, but the square-cube law stays in place.
(01-20-2011, 03:54 PM)kandrathe Wrote: One of my main beliefs of our age is that our process of educating people crushes out their ability to imagine the impossible, and then make it a reality.
But it also fails to educate them on how to evaluate the products of their imagination. I think this is the root cause of the shift from science fiction (which should at least be plausible) to fantasy. And the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality ... never mind.
(01-20-2011, 03:54 PM)kandrathe Wrote: "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
Nope, that's a canard.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?