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Who's "smarter"?

Posted: August 6th, 2005, 1:53 am
by Rat Bag
The 'intellectual' who verbally-collectively wanks on about philosophy and the like...

... or the 'illiterate' who fights and fucks?

Why?

Posted: August 6th, 2005, 7:46 am
by stilltrucking
or the 'illiterate' who fights and fucks?

Why?
. I would say the pirate

It is easy to google and pose about philosohy, quantum physics too
Have you ever seen the movie The Princess Bride?

"Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line"

It is harder to fake a fearless heart.



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this week Laurent Freidel drew the cork on a new bottle of wine and
set out two glasses. He has proposed a toast to (or test of) all approaches: loop and string alike.

It reminded me of some famous words from a comic fairytale called the Princess Bride: never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.


This is, however, not the final answer, for there exists an additional term which is usually disregarded. From an effective field theory point of view, this term is as important as the two others, and thus has to be taken into account in the low energy effective action. The corresponding coupling constant is called the Immirzi parameter, . Therefore, the leading bulk terms in the most general four-dimensional low energy gravitational action, in any microscopic quantum theory of gravity (be it string theory, loop gravity etc.) are given by
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=83459

Posted: August 6th, 2005, 1:22 pm
by mnaz
The intellectual is smarter. So is the 'illiterate' street fighter.
Their respective 'smarts' extend in different directions.

Which one is wiser, or more at peace with his existence? Well.... that's the tougher, more indeterminate question....

Posted: August 6th, 2005, 3:37 pm
by Traveller13
I take it that by smart you mean able to obtain somthing one wants.
In this case I'd say smartness comes from self-trust. Not confidence but trust.

Posted: August 6th, 2005, 5:10 pm
by stilltrucking
verbally-collectively wanks on about philosophy and the like...
In this case I'd say smartness comes from self-trust. Not confidence but trust

Excellent point traveler. The question is loaded. Paints the lover of knowledge as a wank, and the illiterate as one who gets what he wants, while the other just wanks on.

In that movie they both seem self confident, and they both seem to have faith in themselves. I loved that scene where they have a life and death match to find out who is smarter. I suppose the pirate does have more trust because he knowshe can't loose.

Tricky question ratbag. 8)

Posted: August 8th, 2005, 7:40 am
by Rat Bag
ok, you're right, truckin' -- the way I posed the question was biased toward the illiterate.

yes, mnaz, you're right too -- it would have been closer to what I was trying to ask if I'd used the word wiser, though the word wise actually implies knowledge and understanding, which, as I'm sure you can see, contradicts the term illiterate, but anyway, yeah. I meant smarter in perhaps a generic sense, as in,... um... who is more in tune with their true nature or whatever (or maybe like you said "at peace with existence", but then perhaps some people's nature/existence is geared toward intellectualism and some is geared toward instinct).

But like traveller pointed out, I suppose it all comes down to getting what you want. If it's a fancy title and a high class job you want that's one thing, if it's basic urges fulfilled I suppose it's another.

I'll see if I can find a copy of the Princess Bride in my video store when next there. Sounds like a worthy watch.