“ we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. ”
Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (1965). copy citation
| Author | Richard Feynman |
|---|---|
| Source | The Character of Physical Law |
| Topic | error progress |
| Date | 1965 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://www.cornell.edu/video/playlist/richard-feynman-messenger-lecture... |
Context
“One of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law. But experimenters search most diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly those places where it seems most likely that we can prove our theories wrong. In other words we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. For example, today among ordinary low energy phenomena we do not know where to look for trouble, we think everything is all right, and so there is no particular big programme looking for trouble in nuclear reactions, or in super-conductivity.”
source
Meaning and analysis
