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January 2013

A social technology

by Kevin D. Williamson

On humility, complexity, and spontaneous order.


Photo by Richard Bartz, Munich Makro Freak & Beemaster Hubert Seibring, Munich.

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” s ...

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Kevin D. Williamson is the theater critic for The New Criterion and the author of The End Is Near and It's Going to Be Awesome: How Going Broke Will Leave America Richer, Happier, and More Secure (HarperCollins).


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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 31 January 2013, on page 16

Copyright © 2013 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/A-social-technology-7519

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