From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tae W. Son, M.S.
손 태원 (Sohn Téwon)

Studied physics at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Studied Relativity under Wolfgang Rindler.

Studied Wu Tai Chi Chuan under Johnny Qwong Ming Lee.

Proponent of Critical Thought and hence Empirical Agnosticism.

Has a personal library of 1000+ books ranging from Literature to Computer Science.

[edit] Quotes

• "Be open-minded but not gullible. Be skeptical but not closed-minded."
• "As far as I can tell, there are only two absolute truths: 'I think therefore I am' and Mathematics. The first is because of personal experience and the second is because mathematics transcends the physical world of the senses into the abstract world of the mind. Of course this does mean that everything around me may just be a figment of my imagination."
• "Claiming the existence of, say, the Christian God is like claiming that there's alien life in the system of Betelgeuse. Similarly, claiming that a god-like being cannot exist is like claiming that no alien life can exist in the universe. I'll believe you when you prove it."
• "The wardrobe from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the phone booth from Superman and the police box from Doctor Who all serve the same function. They're mundane, every-day objects that transport the audience into the world of the fantastic."
• "Travelling back in time and trying to kill your grandfather is like trying to add one and one to get four (or trying to fly by flapping your arms)--enticing on paper but if you try to implement it you'll eventually run into the brick wall of mathematics."
• "An agnostic would say something like: 'There is a possibility that a creature resembling a fairy exists. However because of the proliferation of the human race, it's highly unlikely that such a creature exists on Earth. And given the possibility that we may have constructed such a creature out of our imaginations, it is even more unlikely that such a creature exists somewhere else in the universe. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's unlikely that a small humanoid creature with wings exists--it just means that it's highly unlikely that a creature resembling a fairy exists.'"
• "The core of Relativity is purely mathematical and therefore cannot be disproven. However, the application of Relativity is still debatable--especially if you introduce things like matter and energy, which no one fully understands."
• "Most proponents of telepathy think that coaxing a person to receive or broadcast telepathic thoughts is like trying to get an unplugged radio to receive or broadcast radio signals. This has a possibility of being true. However, given the statistics of random association (i.e. random uneducated guessing), it is more probable that it's like trying to get a book to receive or broadcast."
• "If you strip away all the mysticism from Tai-Chi (and Kung Fu), what you'll find is applied physics as it pertains to human motion. A physicist has a hard time not imagining free body diagrams."
• "The problem with chemists trying to achieve cold fusion in test tubes is exactly like the alchemists' attempts to transmute base metals into gold--nuclear fusion is not a chemical process."