rattus rattus’ blog

Ich glaube, daß Ideen wie absolute Richtigkeit, absolute Genauigkeit, endgültige Wahrheit usw. Hirngespinste sind, die in keiner Wissenschaft zugelassen werden sollten.
— Max Born (German physicist, 1882-1970)

This is a wonderful quote. And, considering how often it can be applied it is an important one, too. Here is my humble attempt of a translation:

I believe that ideas of absolute correctness, absolute precision, ultimate truth etc. are figments of imagination which should not be tolerated in science.
— Max Born (English translation by author)

I tried to track down this quote. The best reference I found on-line is from page 57 of Sattler M: Das Sokratische Gespräch (2003):

Heckmann beruft sich bei seiner Auffassung über die Wahrheit an dieser Stelle u. a. auf eine Überlegung von Max Born, in der es heißt: “Ich glaube, daß Ideen wie absolute Richtigkeit, absolute Genauigkeit, endgültige Wahrheit usw. Hirngespinste sind, die in keiner Wissenschaft zugelassen werden sollten. (…) Diese Lockerung des Denkens scheint mir als der größte Segen, den die heutige Wissenschaft uns gebracht hat. Ist doch der Glaube an eine einzige Wahrheit und deren Besitzer zu sein, die tiefste Wurzel allen Übels auf der Welt” (Born 1965 zit. nach Heckmann 1993, S. 88).

“Born 1965” probably means Born M: Von der Verantwortung des Naturwissenschaftlers (1965).

What is good sex? Using lube? Long foreplay? Candle light (pre-lit and auto-off)? Hairy or shaved? In public places?
For some people good sex means not to be asked.

But this is a lie.

The wise man doesn’t give the right answers — he poses the right questions.
— Claude Lévi-Strauss

Never make this an answer.
Unless you are a liar :-)

A friend of mine recently said to me that I must not use the word “love” if I know that for my (listening) significant others the word has a different meaning.

Me:

So many questions. When will I get answers?

She:

Later.

Me:

Oh, you my sweet little liar!

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré: Science and Hypotheses. 1905.

If you were a liar and if you thought your hair is telling the truth what would you do?

You could wear a wig in order to cover the truth. But the wig is truth. Someone could see you wearing a wig. That’s the truth but you are a liar.

You could wear two wigs. One to cover your hair, one to cover the wig covering your hair. It will be difficult but you are a true liar. You’ll spare neither trouble nor expense.

It would be much easier if your hair was lying too. You’d not have to wear a wig, thus you’d wear one.

Of course, you could wear a hat on your wig, but you’d always fear the moment where you’d have to put it off. This is what hats are for. One can take them off, and back on again. Or someone else could.

Hats are transferable. Wigs are too, theoretically.
You see, wigs are metaphors. Hats are too, but practically.

We choose our lies.

How does a liar try to hide the fact of being a liar?

I think a wig is no lie. Though, a wig could be a lie’s metaphor. And a lie could be a wig’s metaphor. If a wig is a metaphor, then it actually is the metaphor of a lie’s metaphor.

Imagine a wig is a lie. Could you see it?
What does a metaphor tell?
What does a wig hide?

Thanks to The Man Who Couldn’t Blog for incentives.

Since a few days, someone (or maybe not) repeatedly tries to load a page from this blog’s server with the address thisdoesnotexistahaha.

Apparently a lying liar.

Hey, lying surfer, you are welcome!