Re: Matter, energy, space, and direction.

From: PD (pdraper_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 01/13/05 

Date: 13 Jan 2005 11:51:43 -0800

Oh, good, then I think I'm catching on.

Boundaries are a human construct, because they are arbitrary and do
nothing to account for the behavior of objects or even allow us to
unambiguously distinguish objects. Boundaries are not physical. Nature
doesn't distinguish objects, we distinguish objects, based on abstract
boundaries.

Influences are physical, and at any given "time-slice" all things in
nature (I don't want to call them objects anymore because I don't know
clearly what that means) potentially influences every other thing. All
influences stimulate, directly or indirectly, our senses -- or will
eventually -- or did some time ago.

So I'm curious: An electric field that is set up in "space" around an
"object" with "charge" -- that is physical because it is an influence,
right? I can measure an electric field's influence at any location in
the surrounding "space" by sensing the force on a charged thing at that
location, without knowing anything about the charge that created the
field. The electric field is not an abstract construct, it's real? And
it's a real thing with --- well, what shall we call it for our own
small minds? --- infinite extent, no boundaries, influence over all
other objects?

I'm just trying to get a grip on what things are real and what things
are not.

PD