The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Heisenberg, Einstein, and String Theory

    By Verified Atheist on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 11:25am |

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    If you are completely still, you are everywhere, and

    You have to move infinitely fast to be in exactly one place.1

     

    If you are traveling the speed of light, then you are everywhere.2

     

    If you are in exactly one place, you are everywhere, and

    If you are completely still, you are moving infinitely fast.3

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    The last stanza (by itself) came to me this morning in a quasi-dream state, almost as if it were from the Voice of God. (Obviously, I don't really believe that to be the case.) It struck me as being almost zen-like, a hemi-koan, as it were. In that quasi-dream state I associated it with what I know of String Theory, but later I then realized that it was also a logical extension of Heisenberg and Einstein. I share all of these here not because I wish to foist physics upon the dag†blog crowd, but because I think they also serve as interesting metaphors for life. I encourage any discussion, whether it be physics-related, Buddhist-related, or just life-related (which of course includes physics and Buddhism).

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    1According to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

    2According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. For all intents and purposes, traveling the speed of light is moving infinitely fast.

    3According to some interpretations of String Theory, and also arguably derivable from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle combined with Einstein's Special Theory of Relatvitiy.

    Comments

    For now I will say Foist Away, Atheist.  I may not have much to offer, since I read those theories 2 and 3 letting them wash over me over and over in hopes some of it will sink into my brain through my senses...and I watc some of the Nova videos on the same 2 over and over, too....

    One was called Cosmic Cafe; I think, about parallel universes in other dimensions.  I'll try to dig up a link later.  But now I'll close, so others can notice you have a Creative Piece up.  And thanks.

    And of course it was the Voice of God!  (the inner one?)  ;o)


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 12:14pm

    Thank you. Likewise, while I can't always follow the post-modernism/post-structuralism musings of Another Trope or understand the law like Articleman, I always enjoy hearing their sides of things. I even occasionally like learning about sports from him (but I'll never admit that in public!). I also enjoyed learning a little about history in the recent Civil War related threads (although some of it was contested, of course), etc. I can't think of a single person here who I have learned from. Oh, other than quinn–unless you count him teaching me that half of the stereotypes of Canadians aren't true, while the other half are. Wink


    by Verified Atheist on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 12:26pm

    LOL!  Can't tell if you left out a 'not' in there or not, but...hope this isn't an intrusion.  Turns out my honey had bought me this set awile back (ingrate that I am, I thought...well...never mind).

    Here's part 3 in which it describes Uncle Albert wanting to weave all 3 theories and principles together--(unification.) Gravity bending the fabric of space? whew.

    And this is part 4 of the Elegant Universe, in which the Quantum Cafe (not Cosmic) is featured.

     

    Can't remember if this is the series in which they admit string theory may never be able to be proven, just theorized, until physics is expanded beyond....  whooooooooooo.....

    Seven parts altogether.


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 12:37pm

    LOL, I did indeed leave a "not" out, which ended up making quinn look like some type of savant. (Well, arguably he is some type of savant…)*

    I haven't seen these yet, but will take a gander when I'm some place where I can watch with sound. (I'm currently in a café sans headphones, so I wouldn't want to impose on others.)

    *I'm trusting that quinn understands this is all meant to be good-natured ribbing.


    by Verified Atheist on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 12:41pm

    Ummm..it was saying the bit about not learning from a single person except Quinn that made me laugh.  And forget about it, that Quinn has zero sense of humor, no tolerance for fools, and I've seen the big sword he carries on his quilt and sporrans.  Just sayin'...  And gander away, but watch your back, dude.  ;o)


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 1:04pm

    Happy Easter, VA! ;-)

    by quinn esq on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 1:53pm

    If ya don't get a lickin' from Q on stuff like this, you know your humor was a Major Fail.  Drat!  It'll be harshin' my mellow all day.


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 3:18pm

    Those are good, but I couldn't help notice that in the first bit of part 3, it seem to take the Earth only 8 minutes to complete about a fourth of its orbit. (The Earth is just over 8 light-minutes from the Sun.) Of course, I also took some poetic license in my "poetry", so who am I to criticize? Also, it would've been really hard to see what they were trying to demonstrate if they had been more realistic, of course.


    by Verified Atheist on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 9:48am

    Thank you for a wonderful Easter present. :D

    Here is something less original in return:

    Perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis "eternal philosophy", also Philosophia perennis et universalis) is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness (anthropological universals).

    Also, 

    Amazon.com: The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley


     


    by EmmaZahn on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 12:51pm

     

    Happy Easter!


    by Richard Day on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 1:11pm

    I think that might be one of my favorite Monty Python bits, although there are so many great ones, it's hard to know for sure…


    by Verified Atheist on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 10:46pm

    If you are still, you might not be everywhere, but you sure have traveled millions of miles before your reach puberty!


    by Richard Day on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 9:36pm

    What a fun topic! I highly recommend a entertaining read titled:

    How To Teach Physics To Your Dog

    I finally understand Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle! Not to mention a few crucial ideas that Emmy (the dog) grasped perhaps more quickly than I. How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is a blessing for all those who never mastered - or maybe even had the faintest glimmer about - modern physics.


    by mageduley on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 1:42pm

    Atheist, this is God. Yeah, that was me speaking to you in a dream. I'm a bit pissed off (and you don't want to see me really pissed off) that you took an insight that could have earned you a Nobel Prize and posted it to some obscure leftist blog. Oh well, mankind's loss. And yours, since you'll now go to hell, if it exists (I'll just keep you guessing.)

    Just to clear a few things up: No, I can't follow Trope's musings either; all stereotypes of Canadians are true; it's kilt, not quilt; quinn is the kind of savant you suspected; Heisenberg was never really certain about his principle; you could know the precise position and momentum of a particle if you had smarter scientists; and it was me who made you drop the word "not," simply to show off my infinite power to meddle in human affairs.

    Gotta go. See you in your dreams.

     


    by acanuck on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 3:54pm

    Oops. Too late to sign in as God (Not Verified). Damn! Obviously, I'm fallible.


    by acanuck on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 3:56pm

    Perfect, LOL!  Almost stunning i'd say, but we don't want God to get a bigger head.  But dear God; I'm not sure the atheist knows which not he dropped even yet; he may not be able to learn from anyone but Quinn.  Have you failed him, or he You?

    Atheist: In one of those funny little fits of propinquity, mzchief at my.fdl gave me this link; it seemed akin to what you might have been asking for.  Not.


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 5:20pm

    Actually that is the type of thing I was asking for. Although he comes off as a wee bit campy to me, the sentiment is genuine and worth pondering, if only for a "moment".


    by Verified Atheist on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 9:25am

    If You're really God, then that just makes me that much more sure of my reverse Pascal's wager  that if I choose to believe in You I'll go to Hell, and the only path to salvation is to choose not to believe in You. It's just that You've always had that kind of a twisted sense of humor…


    by Verified Atheist on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 10:49pm

    God again (or rather, for the first time). That earlier comment was just acanuck, pretending to be Me (he does that a lot; one of these days I'm going to have to smite him). Sorry to be slow to respond. I was off watching a hockey game and it went into double overtime. My team lost, and despite being all-powerful I allowed them to lose. Their D sucked, so they deserved to, and I'm nothing if not all-just.

    I'm also all-merciful, so relax, you're not going to hell. Certainly not for failure to believe in me. I've given you almost no evidence that I exist, except for this blog comment. And even here, I could be some Nigerian spammer who hacked My divine e-mail account. Still, notice that I'm not requesting any money, unlike many others who claim to be acting in My name. Anyway I'm Me, believe it or not.

    I don't mean to go all-preachy, but heaven, hell and purgatory aren't places you go when you die. They are just names for the places people live in now, which each of them constructs over the course of their lifetimes. To an outside observer (that would be Me) there is "just one world but we live in different ones." I think Sartre was trying to say something like that with "L'enfer c'est les autres." Maybe not, though; he's almost as hard to follow as Trope.

    G'night. Sleep tight. Trust Me, you won't die before you wake. Not tonight.


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 2:38am

    That was supposed to read "Verified God." Dammit all to hell!


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 2:40am

    Pretty funny, altogether, God.  My own thought about 'hard to follows' is that some writers may unconsciously or not, write exactly to be inscrutable.  I have been thinking there should be a separate category for that sort of writing, like obscurist.


    by we are stardust on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 8:06am

    Sorry, I don't quite follow you.


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 2:19pm

    You are not meant to.  ;o)


    by we are stardust on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 5:26pm

    There's a word for people like you!


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 7:22pm

    Dare I ask?  Or do I name myself? :  Hilarious, Crap-artist, bullshit-geiger-counter, pleasant cynic, unpleasant humorist-cynic, too lame to live, 'gotta love me!', idiot-not-savant, too-plain-spoken-to-be-a-true-obscurist,  naive asshat...oh...the list goes on....and on...(please don;t consult my detrators here, of whom there are...shall we say several?


    by we are stardust on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 7:49pm

    I have a string theory.

    "Cables when left to themselves will always get hopelessly tangled."

     


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 10:19pm

    That's less a theory than a law.*

    *This is true in both the scientific and common definitions of those two words.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 6:41am