Richard Hamming: Quotes about science

Richard Hamming was American mathematician and information theorist. Explore interesting quotes on science.
Richard Hamming: 180 quotes1 like

“In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991), p. 5

“Science is supposed to be cumulative, not almost endless duplication of the same kind of things.”

Richard Hamming

One Man's View of Computer Science (1969)
Context: Indeed, one of my major complaints about the computer field is that whereas Newton could say, "If I have seen a little farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants," I am forced to say, "Today we stand on each other's feet." Perhaps the central problem we face in all of computer science is how we are to get to the situation where we build on top of the work of others rather than redoing so much of it in a trivially different way. Science is supposed to be cumulative, not almost endless duplication of the same kind of things.

“The assumptions and definitions of mathematics and science come from our intuition”

Richard Hamming

Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)
Context: The assumptions and definitions of mathematics and science come from our intuition, which is based ultimately on experience. They then get shaped by further experience in using them and are occasionally revised. They are not fixed for all eternity.

“Much of present science rests on engineering tools, and as time goes on, engineering seems to involve more and more of the science part. …the two fields are growing together! …and now there is not enough time to allow us the leisure which comes from separating the two fields.”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“The only generally agreed upon definition of mathematics is "Mathematics is what mathematicians do." […]
In the face of this difficulty [of defining "computer science"] many people, including myself at times, feel that we should ignore the discussion and get on with doing it. But as George Forsythe points out so well in a recent article*, it does matter what people in Washington D. C. think computer science is. According to him, they tend to feel that it is a part of applied mathematics and therefore turn to the mathematicians for advice in the granting of funds. And it is not greatly different elsewhere; in both industry and the universities you can often still see traces of where computing first started, whether in electrical engineering, physics, mathematics, or even business. Evidently the picture which people have of a subject can significantly affect its subsequent development. Therefore, although we cannot hope to settle the question definitively, we need frequently to examine and to air our views on what our subject is and should become.”

Richard Hamming

Hamming cites Forsythe, G.E., "What to do until the computer scientist comes", Am. Math. Monthly 75 (5), May 1968, p. 454-461.
One Man's View of Computer Science (1969)

“Science and mathematics… have added little to our understanding of such things as Truth, Beauty, and Justice. There may be definite limits to the applicability of the scientific method.”

Richard Hamming

Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)

“All of engineering involves some creativity to cover the parts not known, and almost all of science includes some practical engineering to translate the abstractions into practice.”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“Without real experience in using the computer to get useful results the computer science major is apt to know all about the marvelous tool except how to use it. Such a person is a mere technician, skilled in manipulating the tool but with little sense of how and when to use it for its basic purposes.”

Richard Hamming

One Man's View of Computer Science (1969)

“In forming your plan for your future you need to distinguish three different questions: What is possible? What is likely to happen? What is desirable to have happen? In a sense the first is Science… The second is Engineering.. The third is ethics, morals, or… value judgements. …you will probably have an idea of how to alter things to make the more desirable future occur …having a vision is what tends to separate the leaders from the followers.”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“Unfortunately… the ADA language was designed by experts, and it shows all the non-humane features you can expect from them. It is… a typical Computer Science hacking job—do not try and understand what you are doing, just get it running. As a result of this poor psychological design… although a government contract may specify the programming be in ADA, probably over 90% will be done in FORTRAN, debugged, tested, and then painfully, by hand, be converted to a poor ADA program, with a high probability of errors!”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“You live in an age that is dominated by science and engineering. …Thus if you wish to be effective in the world and to achieve the things that you want, it is necessary to understand both science and engineering”

Richard Hamming

and those require mathematics
Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)

“Great results in science and engineering are "bunched" in the same person too often for success to be a matter of random luck.”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“Since I was trying to teach "style" of thinking in science and engineering, and "style" is an art, I should therefore copy the methods of teaching used for the other arts—once the fundamentals have been learned. How to become a great painter cannot be taught in words… Art teachers usually let the advanced student paint, and then make suggestions… more or less as the points arise in the student's head—which is where learning is supposed to occur!”

Richard Hamming

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)