A visual representation of data must be simple enough to display on the wing of a van
I have long wanted to meet Edward R. Tufte - the man whom the New York Times called the "Leondo Da Vinci of data". The nickname derives from the books he wrote on the visual representation of data, and were written in concise language, decorated with artistic illustrations and produced in a compilation. I am hosting the Society for Skeptics' scientific lecture series at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and I wanted to invite you to give one of them. Some see Taft as a world expert in seeing through the fog of information, a fundamental talent of any skeptic.
But I didn't know how we could afford to invite a man of his status. "My payment will be to see Feynman's van," was his reply.
Richard Feynman, the late physicist from Caltech, became famous in many fields - he worked on the atomic bomb, won the Nobel Prize in Physics, cracked safes and played drums. It was here in Pasadena that Feynman rose to fame thanks to a 1975 Dodge commercial van that was decorated with strange diagrams. Most of the people who saw the van stared curiously at the scribbled lines, but every now and then someone turned to the driver and asked why his van was covered in Feynman diagrams. "Because I am Richard Feynman!" was the answer.
Feynman diagrams are a simplified graphical representation of the very complicated world of quantum electrodynamics (QED). The diagrams depict the light particles called photons as wavy lines, and the electrons with the negative electrical charge as straight lines or as non-wavy curves. The intersections between the diagram lines represent electrons emitting or absorbing a photon. Time flows from bottom to top in the diagram on the back door of the van, seen in the photo above next to Taft. If you cover the photo with a sheet of paper and pull it upwards, you will first see a pair of electrons (the straight lines) moving towards each other. The left electron emits a photon (the intersection with the wavy line) and is consequently shifted to the left out of the diagram. The photon is absorbed by the right electron, an absorption that shifts the electron to the right.
Feynman diagrams are the embodiment of analytical planning from Taft's seminary: "A good presentation of data helps in revealing the relevant knowledge for understanding mechanisms, processes, dynamics, causes and results." This is how we see the unthinkable and think about the unseeable. "Visual representation of evidence must be governed by principles of quantitative reasoning. Then, sharp and clear vision unites with sharp and clear thinking.”
The artist of sharp and clear thinking and the artist of sharp and clear vision meet in what I call the Feynman-Taft principle: a visual representation of data must be simple enough to display on the wing of a van.
Taft demonstrated the principle very sharply in an analysis he conducted after the Challenger space shuttle disaster: "The obvious proximate cause [of the disaster] was the fact that in the 13 charts prepared for NASA by Theocol (the manufacturer of the solid fuel rocket booster that exploded) it was not possible to estimate the The connection between low temperature and the damage caused to the sealing ring (O-ring) in previous flights." The loss of the shuttle Columbia, in Taft's opinion, was directly related to "a PowerPoint presentation festival of bureaucratic hyper-rationality" where one slide includes six different hierarchical levels. The resulting fog obscured the conclusion that the damage to the left wing could be significant. Feynman's classic book from 1970 "Feynman Lectures on Physics" (published by Addison-Wesley Longman), demonstrates how it is possible to review all of physics - from celestial mechanics to quantum electrodynamics on only two hierarchical levels.
Taft established six principles for the planning process: "(1) documenting the sources of data and their characteristics, (2) consistently insisting on making appropriate comparisons, (3) demonstrating mechanisms of cause and effect, (4) bringing these mechanisms into quantitative expression, (5) identifying the fact that analytical problems are inherently multi-variable, (6) examination and evaluation of alternative explanations." Or in short, "the representation of information must be documentary, comparative, causal and explanatory and it must be quantified, multivariate, inquisitive and skeptical."
skeptic. So fitting for this column, which is celebrating 50. When I asked Taft to summarize the purpose of his work, he replied: "Simple design and deep content." We all need a purpose. Simple planning and deep content are therefore perfectly reasonable goals for this series of columns.
* Michael Shermer is the man behind the website www.skeptic.com and the author of the book "Science Friction".
This article is courtesy of the Israeli edition of Scientific American, published by Ort. Click here for the magazine's website and the option to subscribe.
