Help Create Some Neil deGrasse Tysonisms: Tautologically Meaningless Solutions To All The World's Problems

from the good-luck dept

A few months ago, we wrote about some fairly ridiculous statements from rockstar astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, which showed that he was rather ignorant about how innovation worked. As we said at the time, it's great that we even have what's considered a "rockstar astrophysicist" today, and I really appreciate the work that he's done to get people interested in science, but when it comes to fields like innovation, it appears that Tyson does not use the same rigor in making sure he actually understands what he's talking about (and, apparently the same is true in other areas as well). For a guy who famously went crazy until James Cameron put the correct star patterns in the background sky in Titanic, you'd think he'd be a little more careful about making nutty statements. But then he launched this one on Saturday morning: If you can't read it, the tweet says:

Obama authorized North Korea sanctions over cyber hacking. Solution there, it seems to me, is to create unhackable systems.

We've already discussed the pointless sanctions, but the real whopper is the second sentence in that tweet. This is the kind of thing that people totally ignorant of the subject would say. It's not hard to demonstrate why by applying the same logic to other fields -- like, say, astrophysics:

Getting to other galaxies is hard. Solution there, it seems to me, is to build faster-than-light spaceships.

Or, how about death:

Dying sucks. Solution there, it seems to me, is to create immortality.

Violence?

There is too much violence in the world. Solution there, it seems to me, is to create people who are only nice.

Education?

Too many people are uneducated. Solution there, it seems to me, is to create people who learn better.

Go ahead and create your own...

Filed Under: it seems to me, neil degrasse tyson, solution, sony hack, unhackable