“Perhaps our thinking exemplifies a selective system. First lots of random scattered ideas compete for survival. Then comes the selection for what works best —one idea dominates, and this is followed by its amplification. Perhaps the moral […] is that you never learn anything unless you are willing to take a risk and tolerate a little randomness in your life.”

—  Heinz R. Pagels

Source: The Dreams of Reason, 1988, ISBN 0-553-34710-1

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 27, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Perhaps our thinking exemplifies a selective system. First lots of random scattered ideas compete for survival. Then co…" by Heinz R. Pagels?
Heinz R. Pagels photo
Heinz R. Pagels 6
American physicist 1939–1988

Related quotes

Richard Dawkins photo

“Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random.”

Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker

Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 2 “Good Design” (p. 41)

Richard Dawkins photo

“Mutation may be random, but selection definitely is not.”

Richard Dawkins book Climbing Mount Improbable

Source: Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Chapter 3, “The Message from the Mountain” (p. 82)

John Allen Paulos photo

“For the record, natural selection is a highly nonrandom process that acts on the genetic variation produced by random mutation and genetic drift and results in those organisms with more adaptive traits differentially surviving and reproducing.”

John Allen Paulos (1945) American mathematician

Part 1 “Four Classical Arguments”, Chapter 2 “The Argument from Design (and Some Creationist Calculations)” (p. 19)
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

“Seasonal Fires: Selected and New Poems (Seven Stories Press, NYC, 2006); also published as Seasonal Fires: Selected and New Poems (Umuzi, Random House, South Africa, 2006)”

Ingrid de Kok (1951) South African writer

Works

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing …”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 84

“I think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: Grace

Frank Herbert photo

“You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.”

Frank Herbert book Children of Dune

Source: Children of Dune

Ben Carson photo

“By believing we are the product of random acts, we eliminate morality and the basis of ethical behavior. For if there is no such thing as moral authority, you can do anything you want. You make everything relative, and there’s no reason for any of our higher values.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

As quoted in "Evolution? No" http://archives.adventistreview.org/2004-1509/story2.html, The Adventist Review (2004)

Larry Wall photo

“Perhaps they will have to outlaw sending random lists of words. fee fie foe foo”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199710311916.LAA19760@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

Carl Sagan photo

“Note that in all this interaction between mutation and natural selection, no moth is making a conscious effort to adapt to a changed environment. The process is random and statistical.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Source: The Dragons of Eden (1977), Chapter 2, “Genes and Brains” (p. 28)

Related topics