Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Could someone delusional also create a rocket ship? Or is there something special about programming that makes it compatible with delusional thinking? Newton studied alchemy and Linus Pauling believed against all evidence that vitamin C cured cancer and basically everything else. Humans are very good at applying their (ir)rationality to certain subfields while abandoning it in others.
I'll give you Pauling, but Newton studying alchemy in the 17th and 18th centuries would have been far from delusional when you consider "Robert Boyle pioneered the scientific method in chemical investigations"[0] around that time. According to the same Wikipedia article, it was only sometime between 1720-1740 when "alchemy" came to mean "attempts to transmute other materials into gold." Newton died in 1726. --- [0]:…
BUT. Newton also studies Bible Numerology. Trying to find number patterns in the Bible.
So maybe Newton also had his quirks.
Maybe any mind that is exploring new ideas, will sometimes go down some blind alleys.