Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #23

23. Why is the lone scientist, or (true[17]) intellectual in general discouraged? Why is patronage corporate, foundation, academia or state only? Conformity is controllable. Imposed structure requires deadlines. Mediocrity flourishes by demanding a product. Publish or perish.

[17] As opposed to an Idiot.

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22. Independence is eroded by privatization; so is respect.

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21. Who paid for that answer?

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20. Who says everything has an answer?

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19. The constant demand for unattainable uniformity always degenerates into mediocrity through its means. Where Technique[16] abounds, creativity is stifled, and humanity is reduced. Unity eliminates possibilities. Culture stagnates when so fundamentally constrained by the dictates of the “lowest common denominator” mentality. Science, engineering and technical fields are no more immune being stifled than the greater society. In physics, historically, the greatest leaps forward in fundamental scientific understandings have been undertaken as generally solitary intellectual endeavors. Yet, the modern era would believe otherwise. The dollar devaluates more than just economic value.

[16] See The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul (and elsewhere in this book) for further reading.

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #18

18. Mathematical prediction is a corner stone of modern scientific pursuit. In general, a science achieves legitimacy in direct proportion to its predictive accuracy. As a consequence, the scientist is rarely rewarded or encouraged to explore and investigate the limits of science. The Uncertainty Principle, along with chaos theory and certain studies in complexity are rare exceptions, but mostly scientists would appear to believe science is ultimately reducible to simple components or explanations. Faith is not just the providence of religion.

Holiday Reading

A giant breaks his chains and again walks the earth: inflation.
Otto Freidrich’s Before the Deluge: Berlin in the Twenties tells about the effects of hyperinflation in the Wiemar Republic:

The fundamental quality of the disaster was a complete loss of faith in the functioning of society. Money is important not just a medium of economic exchange, after all, but as a standard by which society judges our work, and thus our selves.

… “The collapse of the currency meant not only the end of trade, bankrupt businesses, food shortages in the big cities and unemployment” according to one historian, Allan Bullock. “It had the effect, which is the unique quality of economic catastrophe, of reaching down and touching every single member of the community in a way which no political event can. The savings of the middle classes and the working classes were wiped out at a single blow with a ruthlessness which no revolution could ever equal. … The result of the inflation was to undermine the foundations of German society in a way which neither the war, nor the revolution of November 1918, nor the Treaty of Versailles had ever done. The real revolution in German was the inflation.

“Yes, the inflation was by far the most important event of the period” says a 75 year old journalist. … It wiped out the savings of the whole middle class, but those are just words. You have to understand what that meant. There was not a single girl in the entire middle class who could get married without her father paying a dowry. Even the maids — they never spent a penny of their wages. They saved and saved so that they could get married. When the money became worthless it destroyed the whole system for getting married, and so it destroyed the whole idea of remaining chaste until marriage.

“The rich had never lived up to their own standards of course, and the poor had different standards anyway. But the middle class, by and large, obeyed the rules. … But what happened from the inflation was that the girls learned that virginity didn’t matter anymore. The women were liberated.”

In the World of Yesterday Stefan Zweig describes some of the result of this inflation on society:

In the collapse of all values a kind of madness gained hold particularly in the bourgeois circles which until then had been unshakable in their probity.

… How wild, anarchic and unreal were those years, years in which, with the dwindling value of money all other values in values in Austria and Germany began to slip! It was an epoch of high ecstasy and ugly scheming, a singular mixture of unrest and fanaticism. Every extravagant idea that was not subject to regulation reaped a golden harvest: theosophy, occultism, yoga … Anything that gave hope of newer and greater thrills, anything in the way of narcotics, morphine, cocaine, heroin found a tremendous market; on the stage, incest and parricide; in politics communism and fascism constituted the most favored themes; unconditionally proscribed, however, was any representation of normality and moderation.

… Nothing ever embittered the German people so much — it is important to remember this — nothing made them so furious with hate and so ripe for Hitler as the inflation.

Every Move You Make.

Established mechanisms of political power are, of course, the immediately available means for attempting change. Notions of citizens’ rights, freedom, and democratic participation are compelling paradigms that have consistently stirred the bravery of U.S. citizens – and yet elder political scientist Sheldon Wolin, who taught the philosophy of democracy for five decades, sees the current predicament of corporate-government hegemony as something more endemic.

“Inverted totalitarianism,” as he calls it in his recent Democracy Incorporated, “lies in wielding total power without appearing to, without establishing concentration camps, or enforcing ideological uniformity, or forcibly suppressing dissident elements so long as they remain ineffectual.” To Wolin, such a form of political power makes the United States “the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed.”

Fear Factor: Surviving a disaster often depends on self-control

Fortunately, in many disasters, someone is often biologically and psychologically well-suited for dealing with the chaos. Such people typically are the most likely to survive or to shepherd a docile group of survivors out of a disaster zone. What makes them different? Some have a natural psychological buffer that allows them to bounce back from extreme stress. Examination of people who always perform well in extreme circumstances has shown high levels in the blood of “neuropeptide Y”—a compound that allows one to stay mentally focused under stress. It’s so closely correlated with success in pressure situations that it is almost a biological marker for selection into elite groups for military special operations.

Have fun!

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #17

17. Science and philosophy may reclaim the older common ground. In either base or decadent societies, the likelihood is low. Survival promotes the immediate. Instant gratification produces results, but no meaning. Failure is an impedance. Emptiness invites backlash

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16. Philosophy may be used to determine what is science and what is not; it may also degenerate. Certain ridiculous post-modern sociological theories postulate that society creates science.[15] Although science is certainly directed by the values of society, the underlying physical reality is solid. Only in a world where any idiotic opinion is granted some weight, as if there were a right to be stupid, would anyone give credence to meaninglessness. Religion may be boring, but at least it’s not dull. Post Modernism is not even worth the effort of rejecting. What is reality? A gun to the head is reality.

[15] See Impostures Intellectuelles / Fashionable Nonsense by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont for further reading.

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #15

15. Meaning has meaning to human beings. Vacuums are uncomfortable. One may plumb and probe, but still not find answers. Certain questions need to be addressed. What explains life? What exactly is consciousness? Perhaps, assuming anyone will be around to do so, these problems will someday be tackled and even solved. Perhaps a few thought experiments might be in order. Unfortunately, such training is basically non-existent. Grant money demands results, not meaning. The path that takes the shortest time is rewarded.

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #14

14. Science will never replace religion. It cannot explain death with facts. Why would anyone want to do so? Authoritarians are found in almost all denominations. The anti-religions have proven no less bloody than their false opposites. The state is a even poorer god than God. The instincts for religion seems inherent in the human herd animal. The soul is not spirit; neither is spirit the soul.

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters Section #13

13. Philosophy has also likely lost prominence among scientists due to open hostility towards religion by a vocal minority. This mind set is distinctly positivist in direction. Fundamentalist backlash is an unwelcome obstacle toward scientific advancement. Even agnostics are annoyed by the clamor of those pushing ignorance, and dismayed by the lengths that these sort will go in pushing their agenda. They clearly are not interested in scientific truth. All the same, atheistic scientists can be equally entrenched in their world view. The insecure feel threatened. Who gives a shit? Spirituality is cheapened by talking about it. “I don’t want to hear it.”

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12ii. After the Copenhagen Interpretation, philosophical influences became less prominent in physics, to the point where most physicists would probably consider their philosophy, with respect the natural world, as Positivist Reductionist. In other words, the only true knowledge is scientific knowledge, and a complex system is the sum of its parts, and reducible to individual components (or accounted for anyway). However, it is doubtful that most practicing physicists would have bothered to learn enough philosophy to describes themselves as a member of any philosophical school. Philosophy is not a religion; the ignorant can create a poor one. Like any cultural disease vector, dogma can be contagious. When meaning is avoided in favor of facts, some facts may stay hidden.

Physics and Philosophy - Thoughts on the Implications of Quantum Mechanics, and Other Matters #12i

12i. The formulation of Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, to the point were the terms are synonymous, was long and drawn out. Unlike classical theories, such as Newtonian mechanics and special relativity, no one individual scientist or mathematician was chiefly responsible for its development. It changed the way people look at the world. Physics is no longer strictly causal. Even while neglected by lack of reciprocation, philosophy was impacted no less profoundly. Theories and ideas inconsistent with quantum mechanics have lost credence, if not their following. At the least initially, dis-empowered stakeholders will reflexively react negatively. Some will adapt. Others will ignore the new ideas. The most extreme cases are threatened and even provoked by scientific revelation. If cornered, the resultant backlash will be intense. Reality is often not truth.

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11. On classical causality v. quantum probability:

iii. Einstein’s theology was in conflict with the nature of quantum mechanics. He believed in the omniscient God of Pierre-Simon Laplace and John Calvin, where everything was done to some predetermined plan. Allegedly, Max Born told Einstein to quit telling God what to do. This attitude reconciles the notions of quantum mechanics with the ideas of God, and swayed many with objections along philosophical grounds. It probably unintentionally led to philosophy largely being discarded from the development of modern physics. Meaning is less important that the usability of the theory. It works; the atom bomb is proof. No less true in scientific careers than any other profession, pragmatism is easier: for advancement, one must move onward even if potentially short shifting fundamentals.