The idea I’m trying to get at is “failure to apply insight across domains”. Scientists, including mathematicians, gain in the domain of science insights such as “formulating experiments that provide evidence for hypotheses”, or “observing regularities in behaviour”, or “forming conceptual models which explain phenomena”.
When these scientists, faced with a computer, tell me that they have “tried” various random things and appear unable to express these “tryings” in the language of experimentation and regularities, I come to the conclusion that they are failing to transport these insights from the domain of science into the domain of “dealing with the goddam computer”. Hence the quote about people’s brains switching off.
This generalizes somewhat from trained scientists to “smart” people in general, if you allow that by “smart” we often mean people who use insights of the same sorts that scientists use: logic, deduction, and so on.
The idea I’m trying to get at is “failure to apply insight across domains”. Scientists, including mathematicians, gain in the domain of science insights such as “formulating experiments that provide evidence for hypotheses”, or “observing regularities in behaviour”, or “forming conceptual models which explain phenomena”.
When these scientists, faced with a computer, tell me that they have “tried” various random things and appear unable to express these “tryings” in the language of experimentation and regularities, I come to the conclusion that they are failing to transport these insights from the domain of science into the domain of “dealing with the goddam computer”. Hence the quote about people’s brains switching off.
This generalizes somewhat from trained scientists to “smart” people in general, if you allow that by “smart” we often mean people who use insights of the same sorts that scientists use: logic, deduction, and so on.