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The common idea that scientists reject a theory as soon as it leads to a contradiction is just not so. When they get something that works at all they plunge ahead with it and ignore its weak spots... scientists are just as bad as the rest of the public in following fads and being influenced by mass enthusiasm.

Vannevar Bush

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Vannevar Bush
Age: 84 †
Born: 1890
Born: March 11
Died: 1974
Died: June 28
Computer Scientist
Electrical Engineer
Engineer
Inventor
Politician
University Teacher
Everett
Massachusetts
Vanevar Bush
Science
Weak
Scientists
Ideas
Mass
Spots
Fads
Something
Works
Enthusiasm
Plunge
Theory
Leads
Reject
Rest
Ahead
Influenced
Public
Scientist
Rejects
Common
Following
Contradiction
Idea
Soon
Ignore

More quotes by Vannevar Bush

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On the wisdom with which we bring science to bear in the war against disease, in the creation of new industries, and in the strengthening of our Armed Forces depends in large measure our future as a nation.
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Give these people money, let them play, and they'll come up with something.
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To pursue science is not to disparage things of the spirit.
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Science can be effective in the national welfare only as a member of a team, whether the conditions be peace or war. But without scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern world.
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The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut.
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As long as scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems.
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Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown.
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Associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the Memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.
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It was through the Second World War that most of us suddenlyappreciated for the first time the power of man's concentrated efforts to understand and control the forces of nature.We were appalled by what we saw.
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Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.
Vannevar Bush
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Publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.
Vannevar Bush
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Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.
Vannevar Bush
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Knowledge for the sake of understanding, not merely to prevail, that isthe essence of ourbeing.None candefine its limits, or set its ultimate boundaries.
Vannevar Bush
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Thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race.
Vannevar Bush
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I say, technically, I don't think anyone in the world knows how to do such a thing. and I feel confident it will not be done for a very long period to come. I think we can leave that out of our thinking. I wish the American public would leave that out of their thinking.
Vannevar Bush
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Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.
Vannevar Bush
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There has been a great deal said about a 3,00-mile high-angle rocket. The people who have been writing these things that annoy me, have been talking about a 3,000-mile high-angle rocket shot from one continent to another, carrying an atomic bomb and so directed as to be a precise weapon which would land exactly on a certain target, such as a city.
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A belief may be larger than a fact. A faith that is overdefined is the very faith most likely to prove inadequate to the great moments of life.
Vannevar Bush
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The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist.
Vannevar Bush
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There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.
Vannevar Bush