科学靠一场场葬礼前进Science Advances One Funeral at a Time
Naval： 多重宇宙理论与费曼路径积分之间存在着某种深刻的对称性，对吧？
布雷特： 你说得完全没错。费曼相信多重历史，但他是否认为这些历史是物理上真实存在的东西，抑或仅仅是数学对象，这个问题尚无定论。他在这件事上相对沉默。
费曼是一位现实主义者，也是个绝对的天才——他大概是爱因斯坦之后二十世纪第二伟大的物理学家——但他讲过一句糟糕透顶的俏皮话。他说：「如果你觉得自己理解了量子理论，那你其实并不理解量子理论。」这纯属无稽之谈。戴维·多伊奇就理解量子理论。那是费曼为数不多的几次陷入非理性的时刻之一。
Naval： 我记得是普朗克说过，「科学是一步一步随着葬礼前进的。」遗憾的是，即便最优秀的人也会被时代甩在后面。
我在自己的领域里就看到了这一点。我们这个时代最伟大的几位投资者——比如沃伦·巴菲特和查理·芒格——都是绝对的天才，却始终无法理解加密货币。
一种超主权、诞生于互联网、可编程的货币，这个概念对他们来说很陌生，因为他们眼中的货币从来都是政府发行、政府控制的。他们根本无法想象还有别的可能。
这不过是人的本性罢了。
Naval: There’s some deep symmetry between multiverse theory and Feynman path integrals, right?
Brett: You’re absolutely right. Feynman believed in multiple histories, but it’s an open question whether he thought these were actually physically real things or merely mathematical objects. He was relatively silent on the matter.
Feynman was a realist and an absolute genius—probably the second greatest physicist of the 20th century after Einstein—but he made one of the worst quips. He said, “If you think you understand quantum theory, you don’t understand quantum theory.” Which is nonsense. David Deutsch understands quantum theory. That was one of the few occasions when Feynman fell into irrationality.
Naval: I think it was Planck who said, “Science advances one funeral at a time.” Unfortunately, even the best get stuck behind.
I see this in my own field. Some of the greatest investors of our time—people like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger—are absolute geniuses but cannot wrap their minds around cryptocurrencies.
The idea that there’s extra-sovereign money that’s native to the Internet and programmable is foreign to them because their money is always something that has been provided by the government and controlled by the government. They just cannot imagine it any other way.
It’s just the nature of people.