Freethought & Rationalism Archive

cricket · 11-09-2002, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Once we were talking about the supernatural and the following anecdote involving his first wife Arline came up. Arline had tuberculosis and was confined to a hospital while Feynman was at Los Alamos. Next to her bed was an old clock. Arline told Feynman that the clock was a symbol of the time that they had together and that he should always remember that. "Always look at the clock to remember the time we have together," she said.

The day that Arline died in the hospital, Feynman was given a note from the nurse that indicated the time of death. Feynman noted that the clock had stopped at exactly that time. It was as the clock, which had been a symbol of their time together, had stopped at the moment of her death.

"Did you make a connection?" I asked

"NO! NOT FOR A SECOND! I immediately began to think how this could have happened. And I realized that the clock was old and was always breaking. That the clock probably stopped some time before and the nurse coming in to the room to record the time of death would have looked at the clock and jotted down the time from that. I never made any supernatural connection, not even for a second. I just wanted to figure out how it happened."

I'm never tempted to attach supernatural meaning to events, even if it might give meaning to something personal and tragic. I know many of youse guys are the same way, and of course, Feynman was also.

<a href="http://www.webone.com.au/~bnc/al.htm" target="_blank">http://www.webone.com.au/~bnc/al.htm</a>

Abacus · 11-09-2002, 06:42 PM

That's a good one.

Ms. Siv · 11-10-2002, 07:34 PM

Good one.

Sagan also details exactly such an event in DHW.

Our brain is made to seek patterns. So it automatically "counts the hits and ignores the misses". Thats why people are always seeing patterns where none exist.

- S.

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11-09-2002, 06:42 PM	#2
Abacus Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: South Dakota Posts: 2,214	That's a good one.

11-10-2002, 07:34 PM	#3
Ms. Siv Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: India Posts: 2,340	Good one. Sagan also details exactly such an event in DHW. Our brain is made to seek patterns. So it automatically "counts the hits and ignores the misses". Thats why people are always seeing patterns where none exist. - S.

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