The Sunday reflection:
"Science loves to know the direct links between causes and effects, but it does not require us to know that there are such links. Scientists may suspect a correlation between two complex phenomena. The real problem is that humans naturally tend to make connections where there are none, and also tend to ignore connections that are too complex to predict. We see coincidences as events that are mysteriously fated by some deeply significant design. That might be true, and it might not be. In a highly complex world of interconnected phenomena, some connections are so subtly coupled through long chains of indirect links that we can never envision the effect of one on another."
-- Joseph Mazur in "Fluke"
[...and by a stroke of coincidence, according to Google blogspot stats, 2 milestones today: the above marks the 1500th posting in the history of Math-Frolic, while over at MathTango the 200th entry has just been posted this morning!]
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