Physics
Physics. Created by physicist? We receive it. Is it reality? Is it merely a construct of the physicist's mind? Flipping through this textbook...
The first few pages show the values of the fundamental constants. How do the physicists arrive at these values? But then all values are relative. The scale of the units are always set against something else. Physics try to progress by holding less and less things constant, and instead try to derive them from less of other things. But why are the other things the way they are? Physicists don't explain the universe, they merely describe it.
Further along, there is the different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Now how did the physicists find out the other wavelengths other than visible light? It actually all starts at the senses, in this case our visual sense. Then, through the amazing combinatorial power of the brain, the physicist extrapolates from the discovered wavelength of visible light to x-rays, gamma rays, radio, microwave, etc. But then how does he manage to conceive of visible light as wavesNotice that the conception of electromagnetic radiation as waves, is really quite arbitrary. Why waves? Can we see these "waves"? The waves are actually mathematical constructs, they help explain phenomena such as interference, diffraction, uncertainty, etc. But do these "waves" exist? The correlation between mathematics and physics is uncanny, and is a source of wonder and mystery for mathematicians and physicists alike. But i don't think it is all that mysterious. Take our example of the wave concept. It didnt just pop into our consciousness and mathematics, we observe nature through our senses, and then, through the combinatorial power of our brains, relate between our experiences and come up with concepts. We see waves in the ripples in water. And then adapt it into our mathematics and then our physics. It may not then be mysterious, but it is more wonderful.
Now if electromagnetic waves come from water waves, how about other physics concepts? Again easily explained by the combinatorial power of the brain. Take the concept of force. We first experience pushing and pulling as force. Then we imagine the force without the agent. Then we have the isolated force, F. Then to conceive of other phenomena, such as friction, gravity, normal force, centripetal forces, etc. as forces is but an intuitive leap away. If you examine the physics textbook carefully, you will see that all the concepts there are adapted from our normal experience. This is because reality is what we experience.
This brings us to question if we are trapped in our own experiences, and not really free. It really is a silly question. When people take common sense into metaphysics, they always come up with nonsense. Most of metaphysics make no sense at all. It is like this, we are a physical system, we are totally in this reality. And therefore built to function in it. By Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, a system (here reality) can only be totally understood from outside the system. Now since we are totally a system totally in reality, our mother system, we can never totally understand reality.
Let alone what is outside of it...
So you see freedom only makes sense in reality, since freedom exists as a concept in reality, in our minds. So metaphysical freedom is nonsense.
Common sense always work, but only when applied in its intended domain. Try this. Think of doing something. Then do it. There. You have free will don't you?
Now does that mean physics is a hopeless endeavor? Wait a minute, have we forgotten why we do science? Since we exist as a system in our mother system of reality, we are causally affected by it. We therefore have interest in understanding it for self-preservation. So if we can predict physics, even though we cannot explain it or really understand reality, then physics is useful. Even if we cannot understand everything, we would one day understand all that we can.
But then if we can only construct physics from our experience and creativity, won't there be some things that we cannot understand because they lie totally outside our experience? But what we cannot experience (directly or indirectly) is not reality!
Physics is just a tool to understand our reality. Who gives a damn about the real reality? It does not matter to us, we are here and now in our reality.
The first few pages show the values of the fundamental constants. How do the physicists arrive at these values? But then all values are relative. The scale of the units are always set against something else. Physics try to progress by holding less and less things constant, and instead try to derive them from less of other things. But why are the other things the way they are? Physicists don't explain the universe, they merely describe it.
Further along, there is the different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Now how did the physicists find out the other wavelengths other than visible light? It actually all starts at the senses, in this case our visual sense. Then, through the amazing combinatorial power of the brain, the physicist extrapolates from the discovered wavelength of visible light to x-rays, gamma rays, radio, microwave, etc. But then how does he manage to conceive of visible light as wavesNotice that the conception of electromagnetic radiation as waves, is really quite arbitrary. Why waves? Can we see these "waves"? The waves are actually mathematical constructs, they help explain phenomena such as interference, diffraction, uncertainty, etc. But do these "waves" exist? The correlation between mathematics and physics is uncanny, and is a source of wonder and mystery for mathematicians and physicists alike. But i don't think it is all that mysterious. Take our example of the wave concept. It didnt just pop into our consciousness and mathematics, we observe nature through our senses, and then, through the combinatorial power of our brains, relate between our experiences and come up with concepts. We see waves in the ripples in water. And then adapt it into our mathematics and then our physics. It may not then be mysterious, but it is more wonderful.
Now if electromagnetic waves come from water waves, how about other physics concepts? Again easily explained by the combinatorial power of the brain. Take the concept of force. We first experience pushing and pulling as force. Then we imagine the force without the agent. Then we have the isolated force, F. Then to conceive of other phenomena, such as friction, gravity, normal force, centripetal forces, etc. as forces is but an intuitive leap away. If you examine the physics textbook carefully, you will see that all the concepts there are adapted from our normal experience. This is because reality is what we experience.
This brings us to question if we are trapped in our own experiences, and not really free. It really is a silly question. When people take common sense into metaphysics, they always come up with nonsense. Most of metaphysics make no sense at all. It is like this, we are a physical system, we are totally in this reality. And therefore built to function in it. By Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, a system (here reality) can only be totally understood from outside the system. Now since we are totally a system totally in reality, our mother system, we can never totally understand reality.
Let alone what is outside of it...
So you see freedom only makes sense in reality, since freedom exists as a concept in reality, in our minds. So metaphysical freedom is nonsense.
Common sense always work, but only when applied in its intended domain. Try this. Think of doing something. Then do it. There. You have free will don't you?
Now does that mean physics is a hopeless endeavor? Wait a minute, have we forgotten why we do science? Since we exist as a system in our mother system of reality, we are causally affected by it. We therefore have interest in understanding it for self-preservation. So if we can predict physics, even though we cannot explain it or really understand reality, then physics is useful. Even if we cannot understand everything, we would one day understand all that we can.
But then if we can only construct physics from our experience and creativity, won't there be some things that we cannot understand because they lie totally outside our experience? But what we cannot experience (directly or indirectly) is not reality!
Physics is just a tool to understand our reality. Who gives a damn about the real reality? It does not matter to us, we are here and now in our reality.
posted by zcer at 7:12 PM
2 Comments:
everything is a mental construct
and everything must relate to that construct to make any sense at all
gl, Good essay indeed. it is true that we can not understand what is beyond our world.
physics, for human, is actually a collection of thought of reasons, cause and effect, and experiences that what human get.
UV light is never known or found before a prism that separates it. it is the light sensor which detected this form of energy after the Violet in 7-color-spectrum that we can see, and this detection is shown in the analog dial of the light meter, and therefore scientist figured out there is light after the violet, therefore is named Ultra Violet,UV.
X-ray, similarly, will never be known of or found if it doesn't triggers effects that our senses can sense. if the X-ray didn't caused the fluorescence, the scientist(forgot the name) will never discover the X-ray that CRT emits.
what is gravity? it is after the effect of the centripetal pulling force that 'pulls' the apple and hit Newton's head, combining the sight of falling apples and the pressure that the apples exerted that he felt, he therefore named this force as gravity.
We, can never understand what is an atom, if we didn't visualize it(our sight senses), isn't that true?
therefore things beyond our senses have to be converted into ways of our senses operates and only then we know it exists.
CCFE
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