“The line has magnitude in one way, the plane in two ways, and the solid in three ways, and beyond these there is no other magnitude because the three are all.” WayTwoThreeLinesLogicCertaintyOne WayUncertaintyPlanesReasoningTwo WaysMagnitudeOntologyThree Ways Author:Aristotle
“Since I found that one could make a case shadow from a three-dimensional thing, any object whatsoever - just as the projecting of the sun on the earth makes two dimensions - I thought that by simple intellectual analogy, the fourth dimension could project an object of three dimensions, or, to put it another way, any three-dimensional object, which we see dispassionately, is a projection of something four-dimensional, something we are not familiar with.” WayTwoEarthThreeFoundSimpleCasesSunFourObjectsProjectsIntellectualShadowLogicFamiliarCertaintyUncertaintyReasoningDimensionsFourthAnother WayProjectionAnalogiesOntologyThree Dimensions Author:Marcel Duchamp
“But as the work proceeded I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was not more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of very arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.” WorldWayYearsFallFoundLogicTwentiesConclusionSecureCertaintyMathematicalUncertaintyReasoningElephantsToilConstructsFablesOntologyTortoisesGreat Math Book:Autobiography Source: Autobiography
“We have to deal with this new type of threat in a way we haven’t yet defined. . . . With a low-probability, high-impact event like this . . . If there’s a one percent chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.” IfsWayHelpingTermChanceDealsEventsHavensTypeWeaponsLowsPercentScientistTreatsImpactThreatResponseNuclearDefinedCertaintyAlsNuclear WeaponsProbabilityAl Qaeda Author:Dick Cheney
“As its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we cant predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe. Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it is par excellence the literature of the open mind.” WayMindDifferentTodayLiteratureTomorrowExcellenceMediumsCertaintyMiserableEvolveExcitementAweAnticipationCantOpen MindCredulityScepticism Author:John Brunner