I get the point, and it’s a good one. We should have tolerance for the kooky ideas of those who brought us great things.
Practically though, I expect the oracle box would gather dust in the corner if it had a 1% hit rate and the experiments it required were expensive and it didn’t come with an impressive warranty. The world abounds with cranks and it is all too easy for out of the box to get binned with unhinged.
So I think this is a useful mode of thinking with some hindsight on a track record, but not without it.
I get the point, and it’s a good one. We should have tolerance for the kooky ideas of those who brought us great things.
Practically though, I expect the oracle box would gather dust in the corner if it had a 1% hit rate and the experiments it required were expensive and it didn’t come with an impressive warranty. The world abounds with cranks and it is all too easy for out of the box to get binned with unhinged.
So I think this is a useful mode of thinking with some hindsight on a track record, but not without it.