A LOOK BACK
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By MARLAN DOWNEY

A Bit of Wisdom for the Intelligent

Separating Truth From Nonsense

(Editor's note: Past AAPG president Marlan Downey starts a new feature in the EXPLORER this month, looking back to find the truth of today.)

Over the next few months I hope to guide you in a "look-back" -- and with the benefit of hindsight, remind you of some of the significant geologic advances (and perhaps some of the significant misdirections) extracted from the geologic literature of 50 years ago.

Some of the great papers of 1953 were little recognized for their exceptional quality; conversely, many weak papers were readily accepted and sponsored by intelligent contemporaries.

How could this happen?

If intelligence is a measure of how quickly we can learn, wisdom is our ability to separate truth from half-truth and nonsense. We can do little to increase our intelligence, but wisdom comes to us continuously by our extraction of truths from history and personal experience.

My sons are all car-crazy ... in a family discussion, I reached for an analogy: "Intelligence is horsepower; wisdom is the steering!"

I looked at the listing of new AAPG members in 1953 and was astounded at the quality of the entering class! Larry Funkhouser, Fred L. Stricklin, G. Pat Bolden, James W. Caylor, T. Boone Pickens and Fred F. Meissner, to name only a few.