Dawkins at the University of Texas at Austin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Clarke’s Third Law doesn’t work in reverse. Given that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,’ it does not follow that ‘any magical claim that anybody may make at any time is indistinguishable from a technological advance that will come some time in the future.’ … There have admittedly been occasions when authoritative, pontificating skeptics have come away with egg on their faces, even within their own lifetimes. But there have been a far greater number of occasions when magical claims have never been vindicated. An apparent magical claim might eventually turn out to be true. In any age there are so many magical claims that are, or could be, made. They can’t all be true; many are mutually contradictory; and we have no reason to suppose that, simply by the act of sitting down and dreaming up a magical claim, we shall make it come true in some future technology. Some things that would surprise us today will come true in the future. But lots and lots of things that would surprise us today will not come true ever.”
Blog Archives
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix for 2013/04/7-13
The Moon’s Saturn
A Redshift Lookup Table for our Universe
NGC 3132: The Southern Ring Nebula
Space Station Lookout
Darkened City
Yuri’s Planet
Sun with Solar Flare
M65 Takes It Easy
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix is a weekly installment, published each weekend with links to each daily entry on NASA’s website Astronomy Picture of the Day. I hope you enjoy looking at these often breathtaking images as much as I do.
Richard Dawkins on Clarke’s Third Law
Laika, the Animated Short
from Avgousta Zourelidi
“Laika is a re-imagining of the true story about the first dog in space and what may have happened to her on her momentous journey.
An intelligent creature, curious and proud she fulfils her duty taught to her by the scientists back on earth. Laika daydreams of her life before space travel and her humble beginnings on the streets of Moscow.”
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix for September 16-22, 2012
Caturday 2012-04-14 (Photo credit: vmcampos)
Saturn: Bright Tethys and Ancient Rings
A Solar Filament Erupts
Orbiting Astronaut Self-Portrait
Leaving Vesta
Sunrise Analemma (with a little extra)
September’s Aurora
Austrian Analemma
Ngc 2060 hst rgb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix is a weekly installment, published each weekend with links to each daily entry on NASA’s website Astronomy Picture of the Day. I hope you enjoy looking at these often breathtaking images as much as I do.
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix for August 5-11, 2012
Msl20110613 PIA14252 left-side 0603 T003-full (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
IC 1396: Emission Nebula in Cepheus
Nocturnal: Scenes from the Southern Night
A Wheel on Mars
Curiosity Drops In
Mars in the Loop
Perseid Below
The First Color Panorama from Mars by Curiosity
The four hemispheric views shown above have been combined into a full-color global map (called a Mollweide projection), showing the regions of Mars imaged by the Hubble telescope during the planet’s closest approach to Earth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Caturday’s Astronomy Pix is a weekly installment, published each weekend with links to each daily entry on NASA’s website Astronomy Picture of the Day. I hope you enjoy looking at these often breathtaking images as much as I do.
