Admitted
From time to time, one gets reminded that the majority of humanity is neither educated in matters of science and engineering, nor thinks as such. Less often the distinctions among the technical disciplines is brought home to us.
This weekend I “Stumbled Upon” a website [Link] that dis so. This website is apparently the text of an e-mail that one suspects is supposed to be humorous but illustrates the differences among humans.
The subject of the e-mail is:
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road: Experts Answer
and the body of the e-mail are the supposed answers of notable individuals. The answers are supposed to display some humor but they seem to display more about human nature.
What might be considered “normal” folks’ answers are typically:
Machiavelli: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The ends of crossing the road justify whatever motive there was.Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I’ll find out.
Timothy Leary: Because that’s the only kind of trip the Establishment would let it take.
At least these strike me as being about as meaningful – that is, full of meaning – as what I hear from most of the citizenry when they say something.
A slightly more insightful and understandable answer is:
Darwin: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally
selected in such a way that they are now genetically dispositioned
to cross roads.
but the only one that makes crystal clear sense is:
Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road
crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
from which I am immediately reminded that it is scientists who are in the minority.
But it still makes the most sense.
