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Let things be what they are

Neil deGrass Tyson said something very important and profound on his podcast show 'Star Talk Radio' in the 'Cosmic Queries: Gravity' episode. I am writing it down here because I want to keep this handy.

"There is no reason to think that gravity does not also have a quantum manifestation of itself because everything else has a quantum manifestation. We know based on how matter manifests in small sizes that it could reveal itself as a wave or as a particle depending on how you measure it and under the circumstances at which you conduct the experiment."

"It is a very human thing to say, is it this or is it that? Is it a planet, is it not a planet? Is it less filling or great taste? Is it gum or is it candy? These are false psychotomies. Somethings can be both. But, our language requires that it fit into one word or another. What we are not recognizing is that it is not a fault of the object or the concept. It is a defect in our language."

"If our thoughts follow language, we have trouble thinking of things that fit more than one category. I think it is the source of most human ailments in the world. Chill out and just let things be what they are. Allow there to be a spectrum in all that you see."

"I think, once you learn a language, the language shapes how you think, more than your thoughts shape what language does. It takes a very creative person to start inventing words for thoughts that they had, for which no words applied. There is an age after which your thoughts are constructed from the vocabulary available to you. You have to be very creative to have a thought for which there is no vocabulary to account and when you do, that's how you invent new words and Shakespeare put tonnes of words into the English language. Typically, people find a word that exists and force the thought into a word that exists."


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