$\renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\mathbf{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\tens}[1]{\mathrm{#1}}$ $\renewcommand{\matrix}[1]{\tens{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}$ $\newcommand{\suml}{\sum\limits}$ $\newcommand{\intl}{\int\limits}$ $\newcommand{deriv}[1]{\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}#1}\,}$ $\newcommand{dd}[1]{\mathrm{d}#1}$
Six impossible things before breakfast | blogjou

Murray Gell-Mann

The Quark and the Jaguar

283
20 May 2024

Six impossible things before breakfast


In my discussions with people who believe six impossible things before breakfast every day, like the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass, I have found that their main characteristic is the dissociation of belief from evidence. Many of those people, in fact, freely confess that they believe what it makes them feel good to believe. Evidence doesn’t play much of a role. They are alleviating their fear of randomness by identifying regularieties that are not there.