CERN - the cosmic joke
February 8, 2008 – Libby Davy – Print
Great quote from a Skype chat with my dear husband, early internet guy Graeme Sutherland.
Off to CERN tomorrow…
“It all sort of seems like a bit of a cosmic joke. You need to build massive machines, use amazing amounts of energy, to find out how really little, simple things work. And maybe, just maybe, the whole thing ends up proving what the observers want to see.”
Reminds me of the Alan Watts quote and Taosit poem at the centre of my paper on curiosity and learning - Towards integrated learner curiosity.
“In sum, then, te is the unthinkable ingenuity and creative power of man’s spontaneous and natural functioning – a power which is blocked when one tries to master it in terms of formal methods and techniques. It is like the centipede’s skill in using a hundred legs at once.
The centipede was happy, quite
Until a toad in fun
Said, ‘Pray, which leg goes after which?’
This worked his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch
Considering how to run. (Anon.)”
(Watts, 1957)
lift08
I loved visiting CERN and am jealous as hell that you got into the working areas!
Love, hugs, et al!