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On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 7:02 PM, Peter Humphrey <peter@××××××××××××.uk> wrote: |
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> On Friday 03 April 2015 17:11:11 Fernando Rodriguez wrote: |
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> |
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>> That's the problem with science in general. The one thing it may never be |
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>> able to answer is "why?". |
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> |
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> I think that's the crux of the problem with some current approaches to |
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> physics. Science does not answer the question "why?". That isn't its job. |
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> Its job is to explain show "this is how the world works." |
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I think the ultimate goal though is to get down to root cause. |
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I can have a model that does a great job explaining the behavior of a |
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magnet without ever mentioning what a photon or electron is. However, |
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compared to our current understanding of electromagnetism such a model |
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is rather poor. |
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This is how science has worked for hundreds of years. It has really |
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only become a fashion in the last few decades to lower the bar and say |
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"well, we'll probably never understand how this works - that isn't |
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science's job - my theory predicts the results of most of the |
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experiments we can do within some realm of precision and that is good |
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enough." |
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As I said, I think this is hubris. We think that the fact that we |
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haven't figured out the answer means that nobody can figure out the |
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answer. |
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> It seems to me that prodigious amounts of time, energy and money are being |
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> squandered on trying to find a graviton when no such beast is required to |
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> exist. Gravity, as Einstein taught us, is an emergent effect of mass in |
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> space-time. It isn't a force; it's an effect. Yet how many theorists and |
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> experimenters are thrashing themselves trying to find this imaginary |
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> particle which is supposed to moderate this imaginary force? |
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It might have something to do with the fact that gravity as described |
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by relativity doesn't account for the behavior of matter at small |
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scales and high densities, or for the overall structure of the |
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universe. Clearly SOMETHING is missing. Maybe that something is |
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something other than gravity, but you can't rule out gravity not |
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working the way we think it works. Plus, warping of space is a great |
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concept, but what is it about massive objects that causes space to |
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warp? Is there some underlying mechanism at work? |
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> No mechanism is required because no process is operating. |
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You have no proof of this assertion at all. Certainly there is no |
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proof to the contrary either, but we know that our understanding of |
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gravity is incomplete at best, so it seems a bit odd to stop |
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investigating on the basis that we have it all figured out already. |
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-- |
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Rich |