13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus

 The Hourglass

Not the flowing waters of time but the falling sands of time have given modern poets their favorite metaphor for the passing hours. In England, sandglasses were frequently placed in coffins as a symbol that life's time had run out. "The sands of time are sinking," went the hymn. "The dawn of heaven breaks." But the hourglass, measuring time by dripping sand, comes late in our story. Sand was, of course, less fluid than water, and hence less adapted to the subtle calibration required by the v...
Folksonomies: engineering invention
Folksonomies: engineering invention
  1  notes

Sand vs water, the evolving art and ingenuity involved in crafting this timepiece.

28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Do Not Extrapolate Macro-Philosophy from Quantum Phenomena

Many scientists have tried to make determinism and complementarity the basis of conclusions that seem to me weak and dangerous; for instance, they have used Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to bolster up human free will, though his principle, which applies exclusively to the behavior of electrons and is the direct result of microphysical measurement techniques, has nothing to do with human freedom of choice. It is far safer and wiser that the physicist remain on the solid ground of theoreti...
Folksonomies: philosophy micro macro quantum
Folksonomies: philosophy micro macro quantum
  1  notes

People try to infer that the uncertainty principle means we have free will, but the principle only applies to the behavior of electrons.

12 APR 2011 by ideonexus

 On the Nature of Things...

No single thing abides; but all things flow. Fragment to fragment clings-the things thus grow Until we know and name them. By degrees They melt, and are no more the things we know. Globed from the atoms falling slow or swift I see the suns, I see the systems lift Their forms; and even the systems and the suns Shall go back slowly to the eternal drift. You too, oh earth-your empires, lands, and seas - Least with your stars, of all the galaxies, Globed from the drift like these, like these you ...
Folksonomies: science poetry naturalism
Folksonomies: science poetry naturalism
  1  notes

An ancient poem on the nature of reality and science as the guiding light.