Category: physics
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David Bohm on Thought, Perception and Matter
Quotes from David Bohm, Thought as a System p. 146 “Thought’s participation produces all sorts of things. And it effects perception – what you think affects what you perceive outside and how you feel inside.” p. 146 “You see of feel something produced by thought, but then the next thought comes along and says ‘I’m…
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Laws of Physics and Theology
A quote from Paul Davies, Universe from Bit in Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics (suggested by Wendy Wheeler on biosemiotics list) ‘It is remarkable that this view [the orthodox concept of laws of physics derives directly from theology] has remained largely unchallenged after 300 years of secular science. Indeed, the “theological model”…
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Stephen Hawking: Philosophy is Dead
Recently I have listened to The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and below there are a few comments. The book starts with that philosophy is dead. “Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers…
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From Boltzmann’s fluctuation hypothesis to Boltzmann’s Brain
While reading Klaus Mainzer, ‘Thinking in Complexity: The Computational Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind‘ I have seen a description of Boltzmann’s fluctuation hypothesis in Chapter 3.2 Boltzmann’s Thermodynamics and the Evolution of Organisms. I have read about this hypothesis when I have studied statistical thermodynamics long time ago. However it was a surprise for me…
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God as a Cosmic Operator
I will start with a couple of quotes from the Chapter 2, The Disunity of Science, Paul Feyerabend, The Tyranny of Science “After Newton had found his law of gravitation, he applied it to the moon and to the planets. It seemed that Jupiter and Saturn, when treated in this way, slowly moved away from each…
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Two Mathematicians in a Bunker and Existence of Pi
Below there is a problem that I have formulated in order to understand better what is mathematics. There are two related dicussions: http://groups.google.com/group/embryophysics/t/419d3c1fec30e3b5 http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list/t/b8d7efb597b2349a I will start first with the final version of the problem (Bruno’s comments were very helpful) and after that I will present my messages that led to the problem and the…
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Entropy and Information
In the modern scientific culture, the statement that the entropy and information are the same things is ubiquitous. For example the famous paper of Edwin T. Jaynes [1] according to Google Scholar [2] has been cited more than 5000 times. On the other hand, if I consider my personal area of expertise: thermodynamics and experimental…
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Particle Physics and Gothic Cathedrals
David Lindley, The End of Physics. The Myth of a Unified Theory, 1993. From Chapter 9, The New Heat Death Particle physicists have sometimes drawn an analogy between their machines and the Gothic cathedrals of medieval Europe – both, in their own ways, monuments to a search for truth by their respective communities. The analogy…