virus: QM and SR (was P & T)

J. McVean (jmcvean@acs.ucalgary.ca)
Sat, 25 May 96 12:35:52 MDT


> I agree with your points, except (there's always an except) that QM does go a
> long way to explaining real phenomena in the everyday world. I recommend
> James Gleick's really marvelous biography of Richard Feymann if you want to
> go into this more, but Feynmann was always looking for ways in which the real
> world could only be explained by QM processes, like the colors on an oil
> slick in a water puddle, or the way light sparkles and dances when reflected
> off the waves in a large body of water, or mirages, or . . .

Certianly true. But the point remains that extending the
principles of QM into realms like moral philosophy and new age
mysticism is probably not justified (not that this is your
intension). I just thought that it was worth reiterating that
physical sciences are quite precise by nature and as soon as they
are extended beyond their intended realms you run into
problems. As I have said before, I believe that there are some
absolute truths but they are quite precisely defined, measurable,
repeatable, and demonstrable. However, this does not mean we
currently can find absoute truths in moral philosophy or
aesthetics, or even athropology. The best you can hope for in
these ares is self-consistency.

> of another, and there were lots of these paired, complimentary, ideas. Once,
> someone asked him what the compliment was of Klaarheit (clarity). Bohr
> thought for a while, and then said "Wahrheit" (truth). Don't need to be
> stone to grok that, man.

That's interesting... I hadn't heard that before.

Jason