An idea floats around the universe that models aren’t that smart. I disagree, of course, but what do I know? I’m just an amateur photographer with an interest in nudes and landscapes. And quantum mechanics. That is why I drop by Scott Aaronson’s blog from time to time. He is a nuclear physicist with a sense of humor. Besides, I occasionally have a conversation with a model about quantum mechanics and want to be up-to-date.
Ricoh Corporation recently plagiarized a bit of one of his lectures in a commercial; up-ending the cultural stereotype of dumb models. You can read about it in two of his posts, here and here. Professor Aaronson, it seems to me, took precisely the right approach with Ricoh and achieved a measure of justice. And gave me the chance to strike another blow against the stereotype. Not that it matters. I have as much cultural influence as one of Mark Twain’s nudes. (Twain said, “Naked people have little or no influence in society.”)
Here is the commercial.
