[spinestein]

[On this formalism, even “the mind of the observer” is reducible to the operations of physical-chemical laws: The modern-day scientific materialist insists that mind is only the epiphenomenon of the physical-chemical activity of the brain. ....The formalism requires the observer to be not outside the material system he observes; for the observer himself is completely reducible to its rules. He is just another “cog” in the universal, physical machine. So how can the observer be “separate from the observed system of matter?” I am not aware that this question has been much engaged in recent times.]


Nobel physicist Robert B. Laughlin engaged similar questions with his new book "A different Universe".

He argues that science is in the process of changing from a "reductionist" mode to an "emergent" mode, whereby we examine complex systems and large quantities of atoms as a whole, in order to determine their properties because those properties are an emergent result of their being complex, and their qualities disappear if examined at to close a level.

This has implications for all branches of science as he seems to advocate for scientists to pay more attention to the results of actual experiments rather than try to reduce them into philosophical packages.

[betty boop]

This has implications for all branches of science as he seems to advocate for scientists to pay more attention to the results of actual experiments rather than try to reduce them into philosophical packages.

I like the way you think, spinestein. It's reassuring to know that someone "out there" has gotten the jist of this article right -- that is, has captured its meaning in the spirit in which the communication was intended.

Thank you, oh so very much, for writing!

[Old Professer]

Of all the things held dear, security and shelter serve us best, for on the morn, we set out again to earn our rest.