The Anthropic Principle
As an example of the power of the Anthropic Principle, consider the number of directions in space. It is a matter of common experience that we live in three-dimensional space. That is to say, we can represent the position of a point in space by three numbers. For example, latitude. longitude and height above sea level. But why is space three-dimensional? Why isn't it two, or four, or some other number of dimensions, hke in science fiction? In fact, in M-theory space has ten dimensions (as wel...
notes Forage on the Enemy
作戰: 故不盡知用兵之害者，則不能盡知用兵之利也。善用兵者，役不再籍，糧不三載，取用于國，因糧于敵，故軍食可足也。國之貧于師者遠輸，遠輸則百姓貧，近于師者貴賣，貴賣則百姓財竭，財竭則急于丘役，力屈財殫，中原內虛于家，百姓之費，十去其七，公家之費，破車罷馬，甲冑矢弩，戟楯蔽櫓，丘牛大車，十去其六。
Waging War: It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted... notes Hero of "Brave New World"
The hero of Brave New World is John, a young man
who grew up on an Indian reservation in New Mexico.
The reservation is inhabited by primitive peoples and
maintained by the benevolent world government as a
tourist attraction. It exists so that the civilized tourists
can observe from a distance the nasty and brutish lives
of people who have the misfortune to be unprotected
by the cushions and comforts of technology. On the
reservation, traditional religions and traditional customs
are tolerate... notes A Brief History of Signals
Prior to the advent of practical electrical communication, human beings had been signaling over a distance in all kinds of ways. The bell in the church tower called people to religious services or “for whom the bell tolls”—the announcement of a death. We knew a priori several things about church bells. We knew approximately when services were to begin, and we knew that a long, slow tolling of the bells announced death. Thus we could distinguish one from the other, namely a call to relig... notesFrom church bells, speech, body language, semaphores, fires, and smoke signals.
Study is More Efficient Than Contemplation
吾嘗終日而思矣，不如須臾之所學也。吾嘗跂而望矣，不如登高之博見也。登高而招，臂非加長也，而見者遠；順風而呼，聲非加疾也，而聞者彰。假輿馬者，非利足也，而致千里；假舟楫者，非能水也，而絕江河。君子生非異也，善假於物也。
2 [Translated] Once I spent an entire day in thought, but it was not as good as a moment of study. Once I stood on tiptoe to gaze into the distance, but it was not as good as climbing to a high place to get a broad view. Climbing to a high place and waving will not make your arm any longer, but you can be seen from farther away. Shouting down the wind will give your voice no added urgency, but you can be heard more distinctly. By borrowing a horse and carriage you will not improve your feet, but you can cover a thousand li. By borrowing a boat and paddles you will not improve your ability in water, but you can cross rivers and seas. The noble person is by birth no different from others, but he is good at borrowing from external things.
Example of Relativity
Imagine that George, who is wearing a spacesuit with a small, red flashing light, is floating in the absolute darkness of completely
empty space, far away from any planets, stars, or galaxies. From George's perspective, he is completely stationary, engulfed in the
uniform, still blackness of the cosmos. Off in the distance, George catches sight of a tiny, green flashing light that appears to be
coming closer and closer. Finally, it gets close enough for George to see that the light is attache... notesAll motion is relative.
Copernicus' Hypothesis
After I had addressed myself to this very difficult and almost insoluble problem, the suggestion at length came to me how it could be solved with fewer and much simpler constructions than were formally used, if some assumptions (which are called axioms) were granted me. They follow in this order.
There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
All the spheres revolve about... notesThat the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Truth is the approximation of thought to reality
...reality is a system, completely ordered and fully intelligible, with which thought in its advance is more and more identifying itself. We may look at the growth of knowledge … as an attempt by our mind to return to union with things as they are in their ordered wholeness…. and if we take this view, our notion of truth is marked out for us. Truth is the approximation of thought to reality … Its measure is the distance thought has travelled … toward that intelligible system … The d... notesOur growth of knowledge is an "attempt by our mind to return to union with things as they are in their ordered wholeness."
The Parallax Method
It is possible to measure how far away from us each galaxy is. How? How, for that matter, do we know how far away anything in the universe is? For nearby stars the best method uses something called 'parallax'. Hold your finger up in front of your face and look at it with your left eye closed. Now open your left eye and close your right. Keep switching eyes, and you'll notice that the apparent position of your finger hops from side to side. That is because of the difference between the viewpoi... notesUsing the change in position of an object when viewed from two different points can be used to determine its distance from you.
We Will Retrieve Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 is the first interstellar spacecraft launched by mankind. It was also
the fastest spacecraft launched, to the date of its departure. But it will take eighty
thousand years for Pioneer 10 to reach the distance of the nearest star. Because
space is so empty, it will never enter another Solar System. The little golden
message aboard Pioneer 10 will be read, but only if there are interstellar voyagers
able to detect and intercept Pioneer 10.
I believe that such an interception may occ... notesAs it has 80,000 years until it reaches the nearest star, we will overtake it, which will be like Columbus being overtaken by an aircraft carrier.
