Re: virus: Re: Congratulations! you found it!
Dave Pape (davepape@dial.pipex.com)
Tue, 17 Dec 1996 01:07:20 GMT
>>That book was equally current in 1890! Just change a few names....
>>Seriously. The ideas in that book are quite old, and were part of the
>>extreme opposition to Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity.
>
>Hmmm... have you read the book? Or is the title alone causing your
>reaction to it? BTW - the author wrote a short essay in the current
>APS Bulletin which summarized his point of view. He specifically
>discusses the late 1800's and presents two conclusions. 1) The
>popular belief that scientists thought they had discovered everything
>at that point is a modern myth; and 2) Theories like QM, evolution,
>etc. are not likely to be usurped by drastically different theories,
>ever. They may change some, but in relatively minor ways that will
>not massively effect our perception of the universe.
Oof. Erm... I never thought the Godel problem was so important before. Who
posted it first? Jeez... what if we learn that we can never fully know how
things work? What if that gets formally proven? Wouldn't that batter a few
heads? I'd better ask my dad about Godel's theorem, he's read some Hofstadter...
It's just that, knowing human truths to be subjective in the main, whenever
someone promotes a truth as being eternal, I get all clammy.
There is no such thing as anything.
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