Intelligence and Ignorance

things I've thought about… and things I haven't

measurement

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Science, it seems, can quantify anything:

…on the subject of art and beauty, I must mention Asimov’s suggestion… of a unit for quantifying the measurement of beauty: “the millihelen.”
If the beauty of Helen of Troy was sufficient to launch a thousand ships, then one millihelen would be beauty sufficient to launch a single ship.

[From here, via Wired.]

Taking things to their logical conclusion, one supposes a microhelen would be the beauty sufficient to launch a single sailor… perhaps in a rubber dingy…

Written by andym

April 24, 2008 at 2:02 pm

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