30 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
Specialization is for Insects
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. 1 
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notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Mistake of Not Taking Theories Seriously Enough
This is often the way it is in physics. Our mistake is not that we take our theories too seriously, but that we do not take them seriously enough. It is always hard to realize that these numbers and equations we play with at our desks have something to do with the real world. Even worse, there often seems to be a general agreement that certain phenomena are just not fit subjects for respectable theoretical and experimental effort. . . . The most important thing accomplished by the discovery o...Folksonomies: hypotheses theories
Folksonomies: hypotheses theories
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notes22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Beauty is More Important than Accuracy
I think that there is a moral to this story, namely that it is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment. If Schroedinger had been more confident of his work, he could have published it some months earlier, and he could have published a more accurate equation .... It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress. If there is not complete ... 1 notes
notesInteresting argument: beauty in an equation is more important than having it completely fit the reality.
04 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Why Does the Universe Exist?
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Folksonomies: origins existential
Folksonomies: origins existential
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notesThe most profound question for Stephen Hawking.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Science Cannot have Creeds
Religious creeds are a great obstacle to any full sympathy between the outlook of the scientist and the outlook which religion is so often supposed to require ... The spirit of seeking which animates us refuses to regard any kind of creed as its goal. It would be a shock to come across a university where it was the practice of the students to recite adherence to Newton's laws of motion, to Maxwell's equations and to the electromagnetic theory of light. We should not deplore it the less if our...
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1 We should not force students to blindly recite laws and theorems because that would reduce it to religion.
17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Equations are Treasures
Equations seem like treasures, spotted in the rough by some discerning individual, plucked and examined, placed in the grand storehouse of knowledge, passed on from generation to generation. This is so convenient a way to present scientific discovery, and so useful for textbooks, that it can be called the treasure-hunt picture of knowledge. Found in nature, plucked and put in a display case for others to admire.
19 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mathematics as Magic
Who ... is not familiar with Maxwell's memoirs on his dynamical theory of gases? ... from one side enter the equations of state; from the other side, the equations of motion in a central field. Ever higher soars the chaos of formulae. Suddenly we hear, as from kettle drums, the four beats 'put n=5.' The evil spirit v vanishes; and ... that which had seemed insuperable has been overcome as if by a stroke of magic ... One result after another follows in quick succession till at last ... we arri...Folksonomies: wonder mathematics
Folksonomies: wonder mathematics
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notesLudwig Bolzmann describes working through Maxwell's dynamical theory of gases.
12 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Human Behavior is Dictated by Laws of Nature, but Too Com...
While conceding that human behavior is indeed determined by the laws of nature, it also seems reasonable to conclude that the outcome is determined in such a complicated way and with so many variables as to make it impossible in practice to predict. For that one would need a knowledge of the initial state of each of the thousand trillion trillion molecules in the human body and to solve something like that number of equations. That would take a few billion years, which would be a bit late to ... 1 notes
notesSo the hypothesis that we have freewill is convenient, and the Economic model that we act in our best interests helpful, but not always correct.
