# Refusing to Count Is an Invitation to Nonsense by Peter Norvig > “John McCarthy, the late co-founder of the field of artificial intelligence, wrote, "He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense." It seemed incongruous that a professor who worked with esoteric high level math would be touting simple arithmetic, but he was right; in fact in many cases all we need to avoid nonsense is the simplest form of arithmetic: counting.” > **— Peter Norvig**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term Or Concept Ought To Be More Widely Known?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Counting](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27151) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2017 Annual Question collection, *WHAT SCIENTIFIC TERM OR CONCEPT OUGHT TO BE MORE WIDELY KNOWN?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Article:** [[articles/Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping|Cyber-Physical Beekeeping]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/Infrastructural Superintelligence|Infrastructural Superintelligence]] - [[wiki/Machine Learning|Machine Learning]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “John McCarthy, the late co-founder of the field of artificial intelligence, wrote, "He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense." It seemed incongruous that a professor who worked with esoteric high level math would be touting simple arithmetic, but he was right; in fact in many cases all we need to avoid nonsense is the simplest form of arithmetic: counting.” — Peter Norvig, 2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term Or Concept Ought To Be More Widely Known?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-peter-norvig-refusing-count-invitation-nonsense ```