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wedrifid comments on Privileging the Hypothesis - Less Wrong
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It contains the almighty hammer Mjölnir. It is omniscient. (By volume - sure, it knows all wrong things that can possibly be represented too but hey, every other deity I have studied is defined as something outright logically incoherent so they can't talk.) So in conclusion... not much justification at all until you worship it a bit and it starts to get personified.
If you left it at this I'd say never...
... but I'll never cease to be amazed at what a mathematian will describe as "simple" or even "trivial" when he is in his mathematical perspective groove!
So a math professor is going through the proof of a theorem on the blackboard in front of his class. Partway through, a student stops him to ask about the justification for a particular step. The professor furrows his brow, stares at the chalkboard for a moment, then walks briskly from the room. Twenty minutes later he returns, his chalk worn down to a nub, and announces triumphantly, "it's obvious".
Exactly. I wonder if anyone has a good link to a particularly witty or authoritative expression of this parody. I find it warrants reference rather frequently.
It's one of the standard famous anecdotes about Norbert Wiener.
(Oddly enough, the reason I know so much about Wiener is because Dan Simmons in Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion based Sad King Billy on him.)