David Deutsch Quotes

• Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.

  David Deutsch

  Feelings, Cows, Logic

  "Books for giving: science" by Tim Radford, www.theguardian.com. December 1, 2011.

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• Quantum computation is a distinctively new way of harnessing nature. It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes.

  David Deutsch

  Technology, Way, Firsts

  "The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications". Book by David Deutsch. Chapter 9, 1997.

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• Discovering a new explanation is inherently an act of creativity.

  David Deutsch

  Creativity, Explanation, Discovering

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• Every problem that is interesting is also soluble.

  David Deutsch

  Interesting, Problem

  David Deutsch's response to the Edge Annual Question: "What is Your Law?", www.edge.org. 2004.

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• Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...

  David Deutsch

  Common Sense, Common, Theory

  David Deutsch (2011). “The Fabric of Reality”, p.6, Penguin UK

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• No precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. We need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

  David Deutsch

  Motivation, Inspiration, Principles

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• If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.

  David Deutsch

  Program, Understood, Havens

  "The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World". Book by David Deutsch, 2004.

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• The brain is the only kind of object capable of understanding that the cosmos is even there, or why there are infinitely many prime numbers, or that apples fall because of the curvature of space-time, or that obeying its own inborn instincts can be morally wrong, or that it itself exists.

  David Deutsch

  Fall, Apples, Numbers

  "Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence" by David Deutsch, www.theguardian.com. October 3, 2012.

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• If you reject the infinite, you are stuck with the finite, and the finite is parochial... the best explanation of anything eventually involves universality, and therefore infinity. The reach of explanations cannot be limited by fiat.

  David Deutsch

  Infinity, Infinite, Stuck

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• I myself believe that there will one day be time travel because when we find that something isn't forbidden by the over-arching laws of physics we usually eventually find a technological way of doing it.

  David Deutsch

  Travel, Believe, Law

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• The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from arcane theoretical considerations. It is the explanation - the only one that is tenable - of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality.

  David Deutsch

  Reality, Problem, Consideration

  "The Fabric of Reality". Book by David Deutsch, August 1, 1997.

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• Like every other destruction of optimism, whether in a whole civilisation or in a single individual, these must have been unspeakable catastrophes for those who had dared to expect progress. But we should feel more than sympathy for those people. We should take it personally. For if any of those earlier experiments in optimism had succeeded, our species would be exploring the stars by now, and you and I would be immortal.

  David Deutsch

  Stars, Optimism, People

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• The most important application of quantum computing in the future is likely to be a computer simulation of quantum systems, because that's an application where we know for sure that quantum systems in general cannot be efficiently simulated on a classical computer.

  David Deutsch

  Important, Computer, Quantum

  "The Father of Quantum Computing". Interview with Quinn Norton, www.wired.com. February 15, 2007.

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• Base metals can be transmuted into gold by stars, and by intelligent beings who understand the processes that power stars, but by nothing else in the universe.

  David Deutsch

  Stars, Intelligent, Gold

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• The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.

  David Deutsch

  Majority, Tests, Failing

  David Deutsch (2011). “The Fabric of Reality”, p.13, Penguin UK

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• The whole [scientific] process resembles biological evolution. A problem is like an ecological niche, and a theory is like a gene or a species which is being tested for viability in that niche.

  David Deutsch

  Niche, Evolution, Problem

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• If we can't program it, we can't understand it.

  David Deutsch

  Program, Programming, Ifs

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• Despite the unrivaled empirical success of quantum theory, the very suggestion that it may be literally true as a description of nature is still greeted with cynicism, incomprehension, and even anger.

  David Deutsch

  Suggestions, May, Cynicism

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• I chop and change between what is called 'work' and what is called 'recreation.' There are no discontinuities in my day. I only play tennis with people I find interesting.

  David Deutsch

  Play, Interesting, People

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• It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment.

  David Deutsch

  Reality, Environment, Virtual Reality

  "The Fabric of Reality". Book by David Deutsch, August 1, 1997.

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• The theory that the biosphere was created without evolution, a few thousand years ago, is ruled out by overwhelming scientific evidence. To claim that there are 'alternative (always better) Biblical explanations of the same data', which make creationism a reasonable alternative to our best theories of biology and physics, is appalling intellectual dishonesty.

  David Deutsch

  Biblical, Years, Data

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• Humans may or may not have cosmic significance, and if they do, it will be by hitching a ride on the objective centrality of knowledge in the cosmic scheme of things.

  David Deutsch

  May, Schemes, Cosmic

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• Is the human race a universal constructor?

  David Deutsch

  Race, Humans, Universal

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• The truly privileged theories are not the ones referring to any particular scale of size or complexity, nor the ones situated at any particular level of the predictive hierarchy - but the ones that contain the deepest explanations.

  David Deutsch

  Size, Levels, Hierarchy

  David Deutsch (2011). “The Fabric of Reality”, p.31, Penguin UK

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• Science is objective. And in my view we cannot take any experimental results seriously except in the light of good explanations of them.

  David Deutsch

  Light, Views, Results

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