Comments on: Reality Checks http://www.whatsbubbling.com/2007/04/10/about-reality-checks/ innovation for a better world Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:29:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Sam http://www.whatsbubbling.com/2007/04/10/about-reality-checks/#comment-207 Sam Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:22:46 +0000 http://www.whatsbubbling.com/2007/04/12/about-reality-checks/#comment-207 I think chimpanzees are amazing. I want one as a pet. To what extent will extra data and statistics be able to enhance our ideas about the world when we are, as you put it, "biased by old news and assumptions about the state of the world"? Statistics, more often than not, can be used to prove a whole range of things, sometimes contradictary, sometimes spurious. More importantly, can we be willing to challenge our own preconceptions of the world, do we have the right mindset to consider any possibility, no matter how silly it initially sounds? I want a chimpanzee. They're awesomely clever, and I share 99.5% of my DNA with them as a species. Who'd have thunk it. I think chimpanzees are amazing. I want one as a pet.

To what extent will extra data and statistics be able to enhance our ideas about the world when we are, as you put it, “biased by old news and assumptions about the state of the world”? Statistics, more often than not, can be used to prove a whole range of things, sometimes contradictary, sometimes spurious. More importantly, can we be willing to challenge our own preconceptions of the world, do we have the right mindset to consider any possibility, no matter how silly it initially sounds?

I want a chimpanzee. They’re awesomely clever, and I share 99.5% of my DNA with them as a species. Who’d have thunk it.

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