# How could someone like Newton believe in irrational things **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 16, 2017, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540 "2017-04-16T02:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Fredescu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/73ab20/32.png) [@Fredescu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fredescu)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/61 "2017-04-16T22:28:27Z")
Regarding human rationality, this article regarding the development of AI is quite interesting: [The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 1 - Wait But Why](http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html) A key quote from it: > [@](#): > > What’s interesting is that the hard parts of trying to build AGI (a computer as smart as humans in general, not just at one narrow specialty) are not intuitively what you’d think they are. Build a computer that can multiply two ten-digit numbers in a split second—incredibly easy. Build one that can look at a dog and answer whether it’s a dog or a cat—spectacularly difficult. Make AI that can beat any human in chess? Done. Make one that can read a paragraph from a six-year-old’s picture book and not just recognize the words but understand the meaning of them? Google is currently spending billions of dollars trying to do it. Hard things—like calculus, financial market strategy, and language translation—are mind-numbingly easy for a computer, while easy things—like vision, motion, movement, and perception—are insanely hard for it. Or, as computer scientist Donald Knuth puts it, “AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires ‘thinking’ but has failed to do most of what people and animals do ‘without thinking.'” So, expecting famous thinkers to have computer like rationality is unreasonable. It probably wasn’t their rationality that was the catalyst for their fame anyway, just some irrational pattern recognition. You probably never heard of all the ideas that they tossed out, just the important ones that are likely important because other people verified them. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/62 "2017-04-16T23:53:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. I don’t recall that _anyone_ actually witnessed the resurrection. God saw it. God sees everything. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/63 "2017-04-16T23:59:10Z")
> [@Complexintuition](#): > > … Newton had long hair, i mean unless their is some context clues, it doesn’t explicitly show that the bust is that of Newton Whao, dude, I think you’re onto something. I’ve seen a picture of Newton too, and he was like totally old and gross, but that dude in the statue is like totally young and buff so it _can’t_ be him. Plus there’s no apple on his head. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/64 "2017-04-17T00:10:05Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Plus there’s no apple on his head. William Tell shot it off. Duh! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/65 "2017-04-17T00:18:11Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > You must have been reading about Juice Newton. He’s not even right about that. Juice was on the music scene from the early 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/66 "2017-04-17T02:46:51Z")
In my experience, smart people are interested in many things. While Newton was incredibly accomplished in many ways, expecting him to ONLY have good ideas, or rational interests s unreasonable. Varied interests lead to varied paths. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/67 "2017-04-17T03:03:34Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Plus there’s no apple on his head. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > William Tell shot it off. Duh! While exclaiming, “HI-YO, SILVER!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/68 "2017-04-17T03:13:23Z")
A few items … quite a few individuals of extreme intellect were also really odd ducks. [A good read](https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Brains-Genius-Eccentric-Scientists/dp/0688168949) if you want some examples. Also the journal as a means of communicating and collaborating emerged during Newton’s career and he like many other scientists of his time was reluctant to share what he knew and how he knew it. He wrote Part one of Principia in 1672 to 1674 and sat on it for over a decade until Edmond Halley saw it and convinced him to publish it, happening in 1687. Without journals and communication amongst scientists, testing out each others ideas, black magic flourishes … literally. Finally a scientist is first a member of the society in which they exist (and as per above there was just emerging a true scientific society) with beliefs not surprisingly often consistent with that society. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/69 "2017-04-17T06:52:59Z")
> [@Complexintuition](#): > > but is Newton that big a scientific giant > > someone made the claim before that Newton wasn’t known in the scientific world until the 1980s with the rise of the internet > > not even Einstein was aware of him, is this true? _Sir Isaac Newton came around to my house one day, His face was all sunburned and red. He said he didn’t want to sleep in the shade of a tree, Because an apple might fall on his head. I said, “Sir Isaac, you dumbbell, take my advice. Go right back there and sleep beneath that tree. And if you let that rotten apple fall down on your head Why, you’ll discover gravity!”_ Allan Sherman, c. 1964 1. Internet. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/70 "2017-04-17T08:18:52Z")
The OP may as well be: _If Newton was so smart, why is he dead?_ But trying to respond to it seriously: Newton was one of the _pioneers_ of the scientific method. He could hardly be expected to adhere to it perfectly. And in fact, I’d go further than that: it _helped_ that he was an oddball. The scientific method probably seemed like a strange, counter-intuitive way of finding truth – heck, it doesn’t _even claim_ to say what is true, only what is useful and what has been supported by empirical evidence. If we want truth, can’t we just ask the smartest guy in town what his opinion is (AKA the fallacy the OP implicitly assumes)? It took a weirdo to look at things like mass and motion objectively. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/71 "2017-04-17T13:49:34Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > In my experience, smart people are interested in many things. While Newton was incredibly accomplished in many ways, expecting him to ONLY have good ideas, or rational interests s unreasonable. Varied interests lead to varied paths. And many of the interests of the brainy loner nerds of today wouldn’t have been available to him then. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/72 "2017-04-17T15:25:31Z")
This thread needs recipes. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/73 "2017-04-17T15:32:54Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > This thread needs recipes. I’ve got a good one for a souffle but you know what gravity does to souffles. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/74 "2017-04-17T15:45:17Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > This thread needs recipes. Well go [fig](http://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/gardens/garden-to-table/homemade-fig-newtons)ure … ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/75 "2017-04-17T15:47:54Z")
> [@Beren\_Erchamion](#): > > > [@Complexintuition](#): > > > > It’s just weird that when you get to Einstein he didn’t believe any of that stuff > > Is, like, time not a thing in your worldview? Apparently. Compleyely ignoring that Albert had 200 years of additional information and sociocultural development behind him. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > And many of the interests of the brainy loner nerds of today wouldn’t have been available to him then. Now imagine Newton in cosplay, LARPing at a SFCon. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/76 "2017-04-17T15:55:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Wait, so you’re saying that Newton \*didn’t \*become master of the mint so he could secretly refine the Philosopher’s Stone out of King Solomon’s gold? No one is quite sure why he got the job, so maybe that is indeed the case. ;). It was supposed to be a sinecure and traditionally was, but while he was one owed a favor by the powers that be, this job which came with a lot of chance fo enrichment, well let’s just say that he was way down on the pecking order of favor owed to get this. On the other hand, the English government was getting very alarmed with the debasement of its currency and forgery and they probably wanted a capable man there anyway, job was no longer a sinecure. Which again is a mystery as to why the selected him.His previous work did **not** make him particularly qualified for this role, he was a theoretical physicist and Mathematician and this job required him to run intelligence rings, go into seedy bars in disguise (not making this up), prosecute forgers… it basically would be like if Neil Degrasse Tyson was appointed head of the Secret Service, FBI and made a US Attorney. And succeeds to such a level that it overshadows all his previous work during his lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/77 "2017-04-17T15:57:01Z")
BTW, OP, we voted on the topic of most influential person in history about 7 years ago, with [Newton](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12623718&postcount=694) winning the whole thing. I bring this up, not to bring enlightenment, but merely to plug one of my more successful threads. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/78 "2017-04-17T16:03:36Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > BTW, OP, we voted on the topic of most influential person in history about 7 years ago, with [Newton](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12623718&postcount=694) winning the whole thing. I bring this up, not to bring enlightenment, but merely to plug one of my more successful threads. 😉 I was thinking of that excellent thread by you just a few days ago! I might try to moderate my own similar thread: _Vote for the Greatest Scientists_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/79 "2017-04-17T16:18:08Z")
I did one about Great Events, but it fizzled - had 4 participants. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540/80 "2017-04-17T18:43:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I beheld this! Verily, with mine own eyen! If it were not true, I would not say it! > > (I expect to be appointed to a high position in the new church.) Done deal, with your voluntary prayer gift: $1000 = Novice $5000 = Acolyte $10000 = Deacon $20000 = Priest $50000 = Bishop $100000 = Cardinal [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-someone-like-newton-believe-in-irrational-things/784540.md?page=5)