Posted on 12/28/2007 4:20:49 PM PST by NormsRevenge
That's a shot that even Minnesota Fats couldn't make!
Here's my stupid question: If we can shoot satellites at Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. with a very high degree of probability that they will arrive there, how can we only have a 1 in 75 chance of predicting that this asteroid will hit Mars?
Face it, we have solved pretty much all the problems we will ever solve, which is to say, none involving reality.
“Lucifer’s Hammer” What a great, scary, book!
Michael Frazier
I think they said much the same thing in the 16th century!
;-)
I’m inclined to think we are at an impasse. There was a thread posted recently that I was going to go back to and make some comments (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941367/posts) but didn’t get to it yet.
My interest has always been not so much the details, as the process itself. A keen interest in epistemology and heuristics. What does it mean when we say we “know” something? Is it just a couple connections in the neurons of our brain? I’m inclined to think it has a deeper meaning.
And while I understand alot of physics, seems to me it has a basic problem. For instance, if you look at the number of states (I’m talking about a statistical model here) of the molecules in even a single mole of water, you are getting close to running out of zeros! It takes 4 numbers to describe each molecules velocity, it takes another 4 to describe it’s angular momentum, it takes three to describe it’s position, so we are talking here about Avogadro’s number to the 11th power... well you know where we are going here.
Yet physics can only describe small, somewhat isolated entities, a single electron, or possible a couple of them interacting. While the universe is indeed made up of these particles, they are the stones and mortar, physics cannot ever describe all the different buildings and architecture that results.
The number of patterns, and the types of patterns, are areas that classical physics simply cannot address.
So I imagine that if and when they come up with a TOE, we will look at it and say “We knew that all along! Tell us something really interesting!” The TOE will be something like “If you hold a brick out at arm’s length and let it go, it will fall to the ground”.
So I often take alot of heat on physics threads. Because I think we need a more inclusive way of looking at things. And I don’t mind repeating that I still think Einstein, for as much as he is credited, is quite overplayed. Because his work only really gave us a GEOMETRY of space. It told us where and when, but not who or what or why.
regards,
Happy NY,
djf
I know. Never mind.
I had a brain cloud.
When I see that word heuristics, I must think of welders. They don’t give you a lot of theory but they know how to weld (after some years of heuristic training) quick, cheap, and permanent.
Physics is not a lot different.
Well, mathematics, in particular Godel, tells us that there are, and always will be, unknowns.
And I think I’ve read somewhere that there are problems in topology that have basically been proved to be unsolvable.
So how can we have a TOE if we already know there are parts of the physical and hypothetical universe that it can’t reach?
Like I say, I’m not so interested in the details, as the implications.
Anyways, I’m just asking questions.
I see no connection whatsoever between mathematics and reality except as we might consider math real in itself and the only thing that is real that we can know of. A model, in physics or meteorology, would use mathematics, but this is understood to be a mere analogy, like a metaphor as if science is a form of poetics.
I agree that there is probably not a one-to-one connection between mathematics and reality. But you have to admit that areas like topology are certainly relevant.
The more I look at the issue, the more and more convinced I become that there is no such thing as a “single reality”.
Almost like the universe is layer upon layer upon layer, where the layers might or might not interact.
The findings in QM that we might in some sense actually create our reality are very intriguing. It might actually answer tons of questions. No doubt it would cause more questions than it answers, though.
I remember when the Shoemaker-Levy comet pieces hit Jupiter. That was wild!
They are still operating. It would be cool if they could record an asteroid hit.
I hope it happens, as this will be a important event for research into how we can prevent an impact, and what an impact can do.
We do if you count the state.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.