Quotes About Explanation

When a leader comes along who eliminates the tension and dodges the paradox and neatly and precisely explains who the enemies are and gives black-and-white answers to questions, leaving little room for the very real mystery of the divine, it should not surprise us when that person gains a large audience. Especially if that person is really, really confident.

Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.

No, he could not swallow the "just-happened" theory, popular as it was with men who called themselves scientists. Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe—random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.

The Universe was a silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for it was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that abstract somethings 'just happened' to be atoms that 'just happened' to get together in ways which 'just happened' to look like consistent laws and some configurations 'just happened' to possess self-awareness and that two 'just happened' to be the Man from Mars and a bald-headed old coot with Jubal inside.

Oh yes, there are a lot of things that have been known for centuries before we had a scientific explanation for them. Medieval grimoires tell about witches using bee balm for people with heart disease and, of course, bee balm contains digitalis. It's just what modern doctors use. Somehow the witches had learned empirically over millenniums of being village herbalists what herbs really work.

In short, we don't need to postulate a supernatural Designer. Our experiments create the universe observed by our experiments — which when interpreted always yield an Anthropic universe, rather than any of the millions or billions of possible non-Anthropic universes — because we designed the experiments.

I explained to the desk sergeant who I was, and he got so excited at one point that he glanced up at me for a moment before he went back to writing in a spiral notebook.

We do much better," she said, "explaining why people did things than we do at predicting what they will do.

Do you have a diagnosis?" "It's what in my profession we call characterological." "Which means you haven't an explanation." "Basically yes," Susan said. "It's simply how you are." "You sure?" "Yes.

Words can," Susan said. "And tone of voice. You're just so goddamned autonomous that you won't explain yourself to anybody.

Arguments, speculation-- conspiracy theories of all kind. The usual thing, right? No one is ever simply assassinated any more. Ever since your Kennedys, it is always a matter of how many stories you can invent to explain the same body of facts. That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory--not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

Ever since your Kennedys, it is always a matter of how many stories you can invent to explain the same body of facts. That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory—not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

Went to the whiteboard and tried to show her how AI could help. Always awkward to explain things to computer illiterates, a translation problem, a matter of deploying metaphors and finding gross generalizations that aren't too gross. Started

That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory—not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

monocausotaxophilia, the love of single ideas that explain everything, one of humanity's most common cognitive errors.

There was no excuse which didn't consist of inexcusable.

This was full when I left. Demon, did you eat some of my toothpaste?

Let's just put it this way: I don't think I'll be able to twerk my way out of this.— —Don't know what twerk means, Melanthe.—

Now, that is very interesting history, said Jack, well pleased; and I understand it perfectly all but the explanation.

Words are for explaining the mistakes we might have made, names are for calling when there is nothing left to say.

God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.

Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, religion no longer offers an explanation for anything important.

God is no longer an explanation of anything, but has instead become something that would itself need an insurmountable amount of explaining.