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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 10:41 pm and is filed under The Rabbit.
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13 Responses to “The Telic Thoughts Crew Has a Meeting”
With a $6800 a month income the chimp should be able to retain a lawyer. An investment councilor. A personal trainer. An expensive hooker, and still send his kids to private college. Money talks in the legal system. Even if chimps can't.
(And $1.40/1 euro! Guess I'll be kissin' that European vacation goodbye. Hello Wild Animal Safari Park! LOL)
Ok Joy, explain it to me.
(or anyone else if they have an idea)
We have known for a long time (since before we were in High School) that mass is energy and energy is mass.
E=mc^2
For decades High School science class has modified the conservation of mass to the conservation of mass AND energy. We KNOW mass isn't solid. We KNOW particles, at best, are packets of energy.
General Relativity was proven (as much as science can prove anything) with two plane trips around the world in the 1970s.
So explain the unexplainable…
Why are physicists willing to embrace the Many Worlds interpretation?
It isn't needed. It doesn't make sense.
I am not even sure you need Penrose's quantum gravity.
The universe is a wavefunction. Quantum paradoxes solved. QED.
What am I missing?
In case you are interested. I was trying to figure out how to make this more understandable. When I started putting things in terms I could have understood in 1972 (10th grade), using the knowledge available in 1972, It started sounding too obvious.
The original demonstration (confirmation) of relativity theory was at Harvard University (I believe): Place a radiometric clock on the roof and one in the basement and compare how they keep time. The variance is explained by the difference in gravity.
Oh, wait, that also demonstrartes Newton's theory of gravity! It varies as a constant function of distance.
Nevermind. LOL
(Btw, my brother designed an experiment to test realtivity theory in a Mars mission. He's a "rocket scientist" And Yes, we kind him about that.)
It's not that difficult. Human beings are loathe to let go of their empirical nature - trusting their own sensory experience to tell them the nature of things. This will of course distribute on a bell curve, with PZ Myers at one end and Mother Teresa at the other, but as with all other issues of understanding 'big things', it's all about where you invest your faith.
I'm a 'realist', FAPP. Even though I know none of it's real in the most basic of terms. This saves me from having to be either a mystic or a die-hard materialist. I can just take things as they come, for whatever they're worth. To me, and I'm the one who counts on that level, aren't I?
We live, we die. Here and now, holding to the past and slipping into the future, until we're done. Then others get to do the same thing. Or not. That matters not a whit to any of us really (so I'm always suspicious when people start appealing to "The Children! Think of The Children!" when they're arguing for whatever THEY want to happen for themselves). At any rate, what's empirically real for us here where we live and die is all that ultimately matters, to anyone - including the die-hards like PZ.
It's only those crazy physicists who give mystics a run for the money on esoteric, not-really-meaningful things. If you seek the True Nature Of Reality above and beyond all practical purposes and considerations, you're seeking the Holy Grail. Which can make you crazy, and everyone will laugh at you (because it doesn't really matter).
Haven't you ever encountered a clear 'this-or-that' situation in real life, where you WANT this to happen, but aren't very surprised when that happens anyway? That's the turtle, and it's turtles all the way down. Mystics have God (by some or no name) to blame it on. Physicists blame it on multiverses. That's a psychological clinging to our normal and natural conception of what reality *is*, because it's all we've got and it's all that really matters. The escape clauses (God or multiverses) are sanity relief valves that sometimes get stuck in the open position due to high internal pressure, leading to asymmetrical collapse in the core. Next thing you know, you've a damned naked singularity to deal with. Meaning it's time to go home and kiss your wife, hug your kids.
Or, as Vinnie the Knife is famous for saying, "Forget about it." Truth for ALL Churchillians and Chamberlainites on any side of any issue: Forcing knees to bend has never made anybody's little truths more true than they were when only one person believed it. What's real is real enough, FAPP. What doesn't really matter doesn't really matter.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I do believe one of the rabbits is in quantum superposition!
Comment by Thought Provoker — September 26, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
September 26th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Never let it be said that TTers do not respect diversity. Note how the white bunnies listen attentively to the musings of their darker brother.
Comment by Bradford — September 26, 2007 @ 11:16 pm
September 27th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Guts,
What happened to your bunny-bashing video? You can't go all Uncommon Descent on us and start removing entire posts, with comments!
Comment by keiths — September 27, 2007 @ 5:33 am
September 27th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Ahh after watching it a few times I didn't think it was that funny and kinda inappropriate.
Comment by Guts — September 27, 2007 @ 5:50 am
September 27th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Why wasn't Matthew Pan invited?
Comment by stunney — September 27, 2007 @ 11:40 am
September 27th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
With a $6800 a month income the chimp should be able to retain a lawyer. An investment councilor. A personal trainer. An expensive hooker, and still send his kids to private college. Money talks in the legal system. Even if chimps can't.
(And $1.40/1 euro! Guess I'll be kissin' that European vacation goodbye. Hello Wild Animal Safari Park! LOL)
Comment by Rock — September 27, 2007 @ 6:21 pm
September 27th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Money does not talk, it just goes without saying.
Comment by Guts — September 27, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
September 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
When is that book coming out?
Comment by Eric Anderson — September 27, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
September 27th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Hi Eric,
It should be coming out by late Nov
Comment by MikeGene — September 27, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
September 28th, 2007 at 4:31 am
Mike wrote:
If that's true, it means I won the contest! w00t!
Second closest is Aagcobb, at Sept. 30th.
Comment by keiths — September 28, 2007 @ 4:31 am
September 29th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Ok Joy, explain it to me.
(or anyone else if they have an idea)
We have known for a long time (since before we were in High School) that mass is energy and energy is mass.
E=mc^2
For decades High School science class has modified the conservation of mass to the conservation of mass AND energy. We KNOW mass isn't solid. We KNOW particles, at best, are packets of energy.
General Relativity was proven (as much as science can prove anything) with two plane trips around the world in the 1970s.
So explain the unexplainable…
Why are physicists willing to embrace the Many Worlds interpretation?
It isn't needed. It doesn't make sense.
I am not even sure you need Penrose's quantum gravity.
The universe is a wavefunction. Quantum paradoxes solved. QED.
What am I missing?
In case you are interested. I was trying to figure out how to make this more understandable. When I started putting things in terms I could have understood in 1972 (10th grade), using the knowledge available in 1972, It started sounding too obvious.
Comment by Thought Provoker — September 29, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
September 29th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
The original demonstration (confirmation) of relativity theory was at Harvard University (I believe): Place a radiometric clock on the roof and one in the basement and compare how they keep time. The variance is explained by the difference in gravity.
Oh, wait, that also demonstrartes Newton's theory of gravity! It varies as a constant function of distance.
Nevermind. LOL
(Btw, my brother designed an experiment to test realtivity theory in a Mars mission. He's a "rocket scientist" And Yes, we kind him about that.)
Comment by Rock — September 29, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
September 29th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
TP:
It's not that difficult. Human beings are loathe to let go of their empirical nature - trusting their own sensory experience to tell them the nature of things. This will of course distribute on a bell curve, with PZ Myers at one end and Mother Teresa at the other, but as with all other issues of understanding 'big things', it's all about where you invest your faith.
I'm a 'realist', FAPP. Even though I know none of it's real in the most basic of terms. This saves me from having to be either a mystic or a die-hard materialist. I can just take things as they come, for whatever they're worth. To me, and I'm the one who counts on that level, aren't I?
We live, we die. Here and now, holding to the past and slipping into the future, until we're done. Then others get to do the same thing. Or not. That matters not a whit to any of us really (so I'm always suspicious when people start appealing to "The Children! Think of The Children!" when they're arguing for whatever THEY want to happen for themselves). At any rate, what's empirically real for us here where we live and die is all that ultimately matters, to anyone - including the die-hards like PZ.
It's only those crazy physicists who give mystics a run for the money on esoteric, not-really-meaningful things. If you seek the True Nature Of Reality above and beyond all practical purposes and considerations, you're seeking the Holy Grail. Which can make you crazy, and everyone will laugh at you (because it doesn't really matter).
Haven't you ever encountered a clear 'this-or-that' situation in real life, where you WANT this to happen, but aren't very surprised when that happens anyway? That's the turtle, and it's turtles all the way down. Mystics have God (by some or no name) to blame it on. Physicists blame it on multiverses. That's a psychological clinging to our normal and natural conception of what reality *is*, because it's all we've got and it's all that really matters. The escape clauses (God or multiverses) are sanity relief valves that sometimes get stuck in the open position due to high internal pressure, leading to asymmetrical collapse in the core. Next thing you know, you've a damned naked singularity to deal with. Meaning it's time to go home and kiss your wife, hug your kids.
Or, as Vinnie the Knife is famous for saying, "Forget about it." Truth for ALL Churchillians and Chamberlainites on any side of any issue: Forcing knees to bend has never made anybody's little truths more true than they were when only one person believed it. What's real is real enough, FAPP. What doesn't really matter doesn't really matter.
§;o)
Comment by Joy — September 29, 2007 @ 5:46 pm