My Thoughts on Nature:
In 1986, the Challenger shuttle broke apart just 73 seconds after liftoff, claiming the lives of all seven crew members. Nobel physicist Richard Feynman was appointed to investigate the disaster.
Feynman was laser-focused on nothing but the truth. Through a series of simple yet revealing experiments, he exposed NASA's fatally flawed decision-making process that prioritized launch schedules over safety concerns. This was his concluding remark: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
But, what about human nature? Let's face it. We humans have a knack for deceiving each other. In the former Soviet Union, for example, labor relationships were summed up as follows: "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." Mutual deception becomes a way of life, when and where "the masses" have no say.
In places where you and I can vote a government in or out, liars' pants like Nixon's would be on fire sooner or later. Here, it may be apt to quote Abraham Lincoln's words of wisdom: “You can fool all of the people some of the time; you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.” Honest Abe was brutally honest.
Nature, and only nature, is never a fool.
AI 中譯：
大自然之我見
1986年，“挑戰者”號航天飛機（太空穿梭機）在升空後僅73秒便解體，七名宇航員全部罹難。諾貝爾物理學獎得主理查德·費曼臨危受命，對這場災難展開了調查。
費曼心無旁騖，隻為探尋真相。通過一係列簡單卻極具啟發性的實驗，他揭示了美國國家航空航天局（NASA）致命的決策缺陷——將發射計劃置於安全之上。他的結語振聾發聵：“對於一項成功的技術而言，現實必須優先於公共關係，因為大自然是不可欺騙的。”
然而，人性又當如何？我們不得不承認，人類天生善於相互欺騙。例如，在前蘇聯，“他們假裝付我們薪水，我們假裝為他們工作”，這句話就是當時勞資關係的真實寫照。當“大眾”沒有發言權時，相互欺騙便成為一種生存常態。
在我們能通過投票決定政府去留的地方，像尼克鬆那樣的騙子遲早會原形畢露。在此，引用亞伯拉罕·林肯的至理名言或許十分貼切：“你可以在某些時候欺騙所有的人，也可以在所有時候欺騙某些人，但你無法在所有時候欺騙所有的人。” 這位“誠實的亞伯”一語道破了真相。
唯有大自然，永遠不會被愚弄。
