#cal

Iago’s treatment of Othello conforms to Bacon’s definition of scientific enquiry as putting Nature to the Question. If a member of the audience were to interrupt the play and ask him: "What are you doing? could not Iago answer with a boyish giggle, "Nothing. I’m only trying to find out what Othello is really like"? And we must admit that his experiment is highly successful. By the end of the play he does know the scientific truth about the object to which he has reduced Othello. That is what makes his parting shot, What you know, you know, so terrifying for, by then, Othello has become a thing, incapable of knowing anything. And why shouldn’t Iago do this? After all, he has certainly acquired knowledge. What makes it impossible for us to condemn him self-righteously is that, in our culture, we have all accepted the notion that the right to know is absolute and unlimited. […] We are quite prepared to admit that, while food and sex are good in themselves, an uncontrolled pursuit of either is not, but it is difficult for us to believe that intellectual curiosity is a desire like any other, and to realize that correct knowledge and truth are not identical. To apply a categorical imperative to knowing, so that, instead of asking, "What can I know?" we ask, "What, at this moment, am I meant to know?" – to entertain the possibility that the only knowledge which can be true for us is the knowledge we can live up to – that seems to all of us crazy and almost immoral. But, in that case, who are we to say to Iago – "No, you mustn’t. ↗

— W.H. Auden

#knowledge #practical-joker #science #experience

Pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics. ↗

— G. H. Hardy

#applied #distinctly #mainly #mathematical #mathematics

Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. ↗

— G. H. Hardy

#because #die #forgotten #ideas #languages

The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years. ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#course #critical #decision #events #high

One of the things that separates a good genre movie from a bad genre movie, I always think, ironically, is when you care about the people. The dime a dozen ones are where you don't have any awareness of the character. ↗

— Ethan Hawke

#always #any #awareness #bad #care

Local companies don't have to internalize their costs, and few actually do, but they tend to more often because the owners live there and they have to show their face in town, and their kids play with other kids. ↗

— Paul Hawken

#because #companies #costs #face #few

I think the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off. Theoretically, it could be re-created on a neural network, but that would be very difficult, as it would require all one's memories. ↗

— Stephen Hawking

#cease #computer #computer program #consciousness #could

I think it's critical that you feel you're working for a person who is committed to advancing your career. ↗

— Andrea Jung

#career #committed #critical #feel #i

Most technological advances in our life now come from serendipitous discoveries. That is a contraction of rocket technology and computer technology and atomic clock technology. ↗

— Serge Haroche

#atomic #clock #come #computer #contraction

We figured you could download live shows for days, so we decided to go for a cream-of-the-crop approach, but not just take the best vocal or the best performances. ↗

— Ben Harper

#best #could #days #decided #download