The Grand Design Quotes
"Philosophy is dead. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge."
"A system has not just one history but every possible history."
"The naive view of reality is not compatible with modern physics."
"Our presence selects out from this vast array only those universes that are compatible with our existence."
"To understand the universe at the deepest level, we need to know not only how the universe behaves, but why."
"M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing."
"Science will continue forever finding better theories, but never one that cannot be improved upon."
"The laws of nature determine how a system will evolve over time."
"A scientific law is not a scientific law if it holds only when some supernatural being decides not to intervene."
"The real advantage of the Copernican system is simply that the equations of motion are much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest."
"There is no picture- or theory-independent concept of reality."
"According to model-dependent realism, it is pointless to ask whether a model is real, only whether it agrees with observation."
"Model-dependent realism short-circuits all this argument and discussion between the realist and anti-realist schools of thought."
"A model is a good model if it is elegant, contains few arbitrary or adjustable elements, agrees with and explains all existing observations, and makes detailed predictions about future observations."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." —ALBERT EINSTEIN
"A theory should be as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"To paraphrase Einstein, a theory should be as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"There seems to be no single mathematical model or theory that can describe every aspect of the universe."
"If you have ever dropped two pebbles into a puddle, you have probably seen interference at work."
"The universe, according to quantum physics, has no single past, or history."
"Nature does not dictate the outcome of any process or experiment, even in the simplest of situations."
"Scientists must accept theories that agree with experiment, not their own preconceived notions."
"Probabilities in quantum theories reflect a fundamental randomness in nature."
"The quantum model of nature encompasses principles that contradict not only our everyday experience but our intuitive concept of reality."
"Our use of probabilistic terms to describe the outcome of events in everyday life is therefore a reflection not of the intrinsic nature of the process but only of our ignorance of certain aspects of it."
"Every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force proportional to its mass."
"Einstein’s work showed that, like the concept of rest, time cannot be absolute."
"So you could extend your life by constantly flying eastward around the world."
"According to Newton’s theory of gravity, at any given time objects are attracted to each other by a force that depends on the distance between them at that time."
"Gravity, in Einstein’s theory, is not a force like other forces; rather, it is a consequence of the fact that mass distorts space-time, creating curvature."
"Errors in global positions would accumulate at a rate of about ten kilometers each day!"
"The universe can have any possible history, each with its own intensity or probability amplitude."
"To ask what happened before the beginning of the universe would become a meaningless question."
"We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe."
"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."
"The universe can and will create itself from nothing in the manner described."
"The laws of nature tell us how the universe behaves, but they don’t answer the why? questions."
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
"If the theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design."
"The fact that we human beings—who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature—have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph."
"Our universe and its laws appear to have a design that both is tailor-made to support us and, if we are to exist, leaves little room for alteration."
"An isolated living square or two adjacent live squares die in the next generation because they don’t have enough neighbors."
"In the Game of Life, as in our world, self-reproducing patterns are complex objects."
"One can define living beings as complex systems of limited size that are stable and that reproduce themselves."