On Mon, 18 Jul 2005, Tesla list wrote:
> Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> The vote turned out that "wireless energy transmission" should be off
> topic for this list. It is the only topic ever to be voted on...
Ah, that it explains it.
I can see how it could trigger flamewars. The group who is *certain* that
Tesla knew everything, they disagree with the group who is *certain* that
Tesla was primitive and incompetent. And then they attack each other.
Such certainty is part of a belief system, same as with any religion, and
when beliefs are questioned, the blasphemers must be punished! :)
Alternatively, here is the scientist view from my quotes collection:
"Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by
questioning answers." - Bernhard Haisch, astrophysicist
"The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best -- and
therefore never scrutinize or question." -Stephen Jay Gould
"It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet
hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young."
- Konrad Lorenz
"Inquiry is fatal to certainty." - William J. Durant
"If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will
leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic
for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain
always uncertain... In order to make progress, one must leave the door
to the unknown ajar." - Richard Feynman
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which
cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is
contempt prior to investigation." - Herbert Spencer, British philosopher
"In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it."
- John A. Wheeler
"The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally
confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this
sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that
represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century
science to the human intellect." - Lewis Thomas
"Sit down before facts like a child, and be prepared to give up every
preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses
Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." - T.H. Huxley
"Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not
the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind" - Francis Bacon
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two
opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to
function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is
much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that
might be wrong." - Richard Feynman
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