RE: Stephen W. Hawking

[Steven_S_Prevette@rl.gov]

Q:  In his book A Brief History of Time, Dr. Hawking, says:

Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only 
a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many times the 
results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure 
that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. . . .

How this concept could be related to Dr Deming's  Theory?

A (IMHO):  ---  See page 102 of The New Economics, the story of Chanticleer
the rooster and the "theory of knowledge".

"Rational prediction requires thoery and builds knowledge through systematic
revision and extension of theory based on comparison of prediction with
observation"

I believe another applicable Deming quote (though I don't know what page it
is on) is "no amount of examples proves a theory"  and "it only takes one
contrary example to disprove a thoery".

My conclusion is that the passage above by Dr. Hawking is completely
compatible with Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge.  I would not be
surprised if both works were based upon the same source.



Steve Prevette
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Fluor Hanford, A Fluor Global Services Company
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steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
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