pood
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2021
- Messages
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- Basic Beliefs
- agnostic
Looks to be a interesting series here, divided into nine parts, at Quanta, called “The Unravelling of Space-Time.” The interactive intro page to which the link takes you is inventive, especially at the end where you can manipulate an entire concluding paragraph to fall down a black hole, but still rather annoying for all that. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Wisdom from Jurassic Park
However, the page is participatory, a nice intro the first essay.
The first essay, the only one I’ve read so far, is on John Wheeler and his participatory universe. Wheeler seemed to be taking us very close to abandoning metaphysical naturalism in favor of metaphysical idealism, and the latter has always intrigued me as a live possibility. An extract from the essay:
How much this is like old Schopenhauer, who lived before relativity, quantum physics, modern science, et al, and yet was motivated to write:
Toward the end, it recounts how Wheeler agonized over how it is, in a participatory universe, that there is any consensus reality at all. And I couldn’t help wonder whether he was even moving beyond potential metaphysical idealism to potential metaphysical solipsism.
But even before Wheeler, special relativity was telling us we all have our own private space-time. That there is any superficial consensus about it is because in the main we share the same reference frame.
Anyhow, even though Wheeler was a scientist I put this in the philosophy forum, which is perfectly OK because IMO science and philosophy and inextricably intertwined. I’ll read all the essays as time permits and hopefully others will, too, and offer comments. To me, this is so much more interesting than mere politics, though unfortunately politics is probably more important for everyday life, especially now.
However, the page is participatory, a nice intro the first essay.
The first essay, the only one I’ve read so far, is on John Wheeler and his participatory universe. Wheeler seemed to be taking us very close to abandoning metaphysical naturalism in favor of metaphysical idealism, and the latter has always intrigued me as a live possibility. An extract from the essay:
How much this is like old Schopenhauer, who lived before relativity, quantum physics, modern science, et al, and yet was motivated to write:
Toward the end, it recounts how Wheeler agonized over how it is, in a participatory universe, that there is any consensus reality at all. And I couldn’t help wonder whether he was even moving beyond potential metaphysical idealism to potential metaphysical solipsism.
But even before Wheeler, special relativity was telling us we all have our own private space-time. That there is any superficial consensus about it is because in the main we share the same reference frame.
Anyhow, even though Wheeler was a scientist I put this in the philosophy forum, which is perfectly OK because IMO science and philosophy and inextricably intertwined. I’ll read all the essays as time permits and hopefully others will, too, and offer comments. To me, this is so much more interesting than mere politics, though unfortunately politics is probably more important for everyday life, especially now.
