Aphorisms
I doubt, therefore I may not exist.
Mă îndoiesc, deci poate că nu exist.
Dubito, ergo fortasse non sum.
Comfort is the opium of the people.
Comfortul e opiul poporului.
Să ne ferească Dumnezeu de televizor.
Ştiinţa este metoda de a nu vorbi despre ce nu cunoşti. Relaţiile publice sunt arta de a face restul: de a nu vorbi despre ceea ce cunoşti sau de a vorbi despre ceea ce nu cunoşti.
Intelectualii români, dacă se vor vedea mereu ca gravitând în jurul “luminii din Vest”, vor rămâne întotdeauna, cel puţin în propriii lor ochi, niște marginali frustraţi. Şi asta este adevărata, fundamentala lor prostie.
Intuition is the currency of science.
Intuiția e moneda de schimb a științei.
When thought and understanding fail, one resorts to calculation.
When calculation fails, one resorts to computation.
When computation fails, one resorts to experimentation.
When experimentation fails, one resorts to thought and understanding.
Definition is delusion by definition.
“Définition” n’est qu’illusion.
All explanation suffers from a fundamental illness: the virtus dormitiva syndrome.
Engineering is the science of making other people rich.
Ingineria e știința de a îmbogăți pe alții.
The branch of philosophy known as ontology is the fundamental, defining delusion of western civilization. In this sense Parmenides may be said to be the founding father of western civilization.
An ontology may be defined as a state of mind whereby one is in denial of time, or change.
O ontologie este o stare de spirit în care gânditorul se preface că timpul, sau schimbarea, nu există.
American conservative: “Speak softly but carry a big stick.”
American neo-conservative: “Words are wasted. Let the stick speak.”
American liberal: “Sticks and stones will break our bones.”
European left: “Speak softly. Grown-ups don’t play with sticks.”
European right: “OK, but let’s get a bigger stick, just in case.”
Indignarea e furia prostului.
Indignation is fool’s fury.
L’indignation c’est la colère du con.
Versiune soft:
Indignarea e furia neputinţei.
Indignation is the fury of powerlessness.
L’indignation c’est la colère de l’impuissance.
La soutenance, c’est la fin de l’enfance.
If you want to speak to the market, who do you call? You cannot rap an invisible hand on the knuckles.
In a computational universe, simulation is proof.
Dans la physique de l’information, simulation vaut démonstration.
The physics of information is the grand unified theory of simulation, proof and experiment. In this way a proof (math), a simulation (engineering) and an experiment (physics) are seen as only different instances of the same general, generic phenomenon: information processing.
Le Temps, c’est la crise constante, universelle.
Time is the constant, universal crisis.
Timpul este criza constantă, universală.
The reason why basic physics has had a hard time making real progress in the last few decades is because, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, its fundamental flaws are completely hidden by its superficial flaws.
Ce qui explique pourquoi la physique fondamentale a eu du mal à faire du progrès véritable ces derniers décénies, c’est que, dans les mots de Douglas Adams, ses défauts fondamentaux sont complètement cachés par ses défauts superficiels.
Motivul pentru care fizica fundamentala nu a facut progrese notabile in ultimele cateva decenii este pentru ca, in cuvintele lui Douglas Adams, defectele ei fundamentale sunt complet ascunse de defectele superficiale.
Stupidity is the incapacity to tell the difference between good and bad. It is the cancer of the mind, rendering any immune mechanism powerless to defend its host.
Prostia este incapacitatea de a recunoaste diferenta dintre bun si prost. Este cancerul mintii, orice mecanism imunitar fiind incapabil de a proteja purtatorul.
La stupidité, c’est l’incapacité de faire la différence entre bon et mauvais. C’est le cancer de l’esprit, tout mécanisme immunitaire étant incapable de défendre l’hôte.
A rational observer cannot exist independently from the act of observation. A completely ignorant Jaynes’ robot does not exist. Observation defines the observer.
Experiment is the difference between science and religion.
Experimentul este diferența dintre știință și religie.
Too much science kills science.
Trop de science tue la science.
[Science is not immune to bubbles.]
Powerful is he who is able to make happen what he wants.
Happy is he who is able to want what happens.
Successful is he who is able to find the point of balance between the two.
You’ll have bad times. But they’ll wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.
Good Will Hunting
The United States is the only successful plutocracy. Its saving grace as a “democracy” is that applications for the plutocracy are open to anyone.
France is the only successful Stalinist regime. Its only saving grace as a market economy is that consumers have a habit of periodically burning down underperforming government institutions.
The only things which we believe not to require explanation are the ones that we have agreed, that we have accepted, collectively, and at least for the time being, to not understand.
Intelligence is the mental equivalent of opposable thumbs.
Time is interaction. Emptiness is that which has no parts. Thus it lasts forever.
By its nature, fundamental research cannot be planned, making it poorly adapted to financial investment, whether private or public; this is why it is best done as a hobby.
Fundamental discovery is accidental. The rest is engineering.
["Research" replaced with "discovery" at Alexandru Corlan's suggestion. Thank you!]
The fundamental law of natural selection is “The dead don’t vote.”
Mathematics is the science of communication. Its function is to identify concepts and ideas which are independent of the point of view. Mathematics may therefore be defined as the set of all viewpoint invariant concepts. The existence of such concepts is the only thing that makes communication possible. This is true not only of communication between intelligent beings but of any kind of interaction at all. Mathematics is therefore not only the language of science; it is the only real language of any kind.
Eu sunt doar pe jumatate.
Most bad intentions are just good intentions, with respect to someone else. The remainder are indistinguishable from stupidity, which is just another form of insanity. In this sense, politics is the art of compromise, mostly. The remainder is damage control and containment.
Apusul apune ?
In politics, one oftentimes does not have friends, one has objectives.
În politică, de cele mai multe ori nu ai prieteni, ai obiective.
Dans la politique, le plus souvent on n’a pas d’amis, on a des objectifs.
If science may be defined as any logically empirical endeavor, i.e., as any internally consistent system based on observation, then theorists are the bureaucrats of science. Some experimentalists may even legitimately go so far as to consider that theory is the experimentalists’ red tape.
Western cultures and societies seem to be willing to sacrifice anything, even their physical, mental, social and spiritual health, and even their family life, on the altar of convenience.
E bine să fie vânt când pui cortul pentru că va fi solid. Acesta este motivul pentru care clădirile sunt mai solide în zone cu cutremure, şi acesta este motivul pentru care reforma educaţiei şi cercetării în România va reuşi.
Upper management is the testicles of an organization. They take up very little space and have negligible direct contribution to the overall effort, but are vital to survival and therefore often involve a massively disproportionate investment. More technically speaking, managers, like testicles, are information bottlenecks.
Dacă ai memorie,
ai carte
şi chiar e mai bine.
Memoria e a ta;
cartea e doar memoria
altcuiva.
Într-o ţară cu sute de biserici-bijuterie, Biserica simte nevoia unui ghiul.
Nu există argument mai puternic decât reuşita.
There is no argument more powerful than success.
Il n’y a pas d’argument plus fort que la réussite.
Welcome to the global Lebanon.
(11/2011)
Orthodox work ethic: work first – get paid later. Much later.
Pe deasupra la un peşte,
Gigi stă şi pescuieşte.
Pluta, ea, cam stă degeaba.
Gigi nu prea reuşeşte;
asta-i treaba.
[Napalm, Andreea, Căbuz]
Complexul de inferioritate tipic românesc este ceea ce ne permite să învăţăm de la alţii mult mai repede şi mai mult decât îşi dă cineva seama, inclusiv noi înşine.
Înţelepciunea este capacitatea de a vedea binele din rău, dar şi răul din bine.
Înţelepciunea este o formă avansată de inteligenţă, şi dă putere, dar nu viaţă.
Mănăstirile sunt celulele suşă ale culturii româneşti.
Monasteries are the stem-cells of Romanian culture.
On the real axis, my country has positive and negative values. On the outside is a complex plane, rich and fascinating, but, in the end, ghostlike and unreal.
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Nu sunt de acord ca diferenta dintre stiinta si religie este experimentul. Experimentul se face in ambele cazuri. Stiinta este efortul de a intelege realitatea materiala,masurabila cu aparate, pe cand religia este to incercarea omului de a trece dincolo de ceea ce poate fi masurat cu aparate. Religia (re-legare cu divinitatea) in sine este un efort tot uman si un experiment, dar sortit esecului, pentru ca Adevarul daca nu este revelat, totul este in zadar. Omul nu poate accede de la sine ceea ce il depaseste.