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An instance of Feynman being quite, quite incorrect.

2 points by mynameishere ↗ HN
I like going through wikiquote's various entries, and was reading Feynman's otherwise interesting comments, until I got to this:

[QUOTE] If, in some cataclysm, all scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another... [/QUOTE]

Wrong. The one sentence to pass on (with the understanding that it is automatically believed) is this: There is no god, therefore look elsewhere for truth.

3 comments

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mgummelt
Are you trying to argue that that statement would be the most useful to the future generation? That is not the goal of the statement Feynman is proposing. It is to contain the most information in the fewest words. The non-existence of God isn't information like the atomic hypothesis is.