Re: OT: art and language and THE DAVINCI CODE

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à John Cowan :
>
>
> >Can he explain quantum mechanics over dinner, or why a particular
> research
> >idea is promising whereas another is obviously going to lead nowhere?
> >Probably not.
>
> If he cannot explain quantum mechanics over dinner, then he is not a
> scientist (or one who doesn't know anything about quantum mechanics.
> Not
> impossible, but then the example lose all strength :)) ). Why, even I,
> a
> junior scientist, have managed to explain quantum mechanics over dinner
> to
> a completely ascientific person.
'Explain' at what level? I mean, even I, who am neither a physicist nor known
for my ability to saying in two easy words what can be said in one difficult,
could probably explain quantum mechanics for that ascientific person over a
dinner well enough that he/she thought he/she had an idea was it was all about
and what it can be used for. But I wouldn't claim that I 'understand' quantum
mechanics, still less that I could use it for anything remotely practical.

                                                         Andreas

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