On 13 May 2014 11:05, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5/12/2014 3:36 PM, LizR wrote: > > On 12 May 2014 23:53, Kim Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > On 12 May 2014, at 12:05 pm, John Ross wrote: >> > >> > He (Stephen Hawking) believes science has become too complicated and we >> need a theory that can be understandable in broad principal by everyone, >> not just a few scientists. >> >> Are you quite sure that was Stephen who authored that thought or Stephen >> saying what his book publisher put him under intense pressure to say? >> Recall that Hawking's books have been hailed as some of the most purchased >> and the least read (and understood) of all science writers. I think I gave >> up on his legendary "Brief History of Time" after about page 45. >> >> Shame on you. You will never understand the mind of God! :-) > > > Richard Feynman said that if we really understand something we can print > it on a t-shirt and explain it to freshmen. Historically, scientific > theories tend to be messy and muddled when they are first put forward, e.g. > Heisenberg's matrix mechanics, and then they get cleaned up and become > easier to understand later. >
I said the same about relativity a few posts back. Comprehension of the theories of relativity went from "three people can understand it (and I'm trying to think who the third one is)" to "Relativity for the Million" - in about 50 years I think. (And with quite a bit of help from Robert Heinlein, imo.) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
