Re: layman: general interest in physics, relativity and quantum mechanics

On 11 Mar 2006 08:37:58 -0800, surrealistic-dream@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

[Snip...]

Peter, what you suggest seems like a good idea, but it is
really not. Newsgroups attract troubled people with hidden
agendas, jealousies, insecurities, phobias, intolerances,
bigotries, frustrations, and serious neuroses.

In other words, the 'normal' human spectrum. It's W. C.
Fields's perspective ..., "in general people are no damned
good".

You can't know who will genuinely help you or hinder you at
this point. Do you really want to subject yourself to personal
libelous abuse from people who are no longer taking their
psychotropic meds against their doctor's orders?

Who do suspect of this?

Not to mention those who see themselves as God's only true
voice on earth for what is true in physics and reality!

Ah, egocentic narcissists, yeah we have quite a few of
those 'round here'.

Think about it.

I'll give an example. Suppose you make a post asking a "harmless"
question about radioactive decay and quantum mechanics. But what
replies will you get? (The following answer is a somewhat
tongue-in-cheek hyperbole, where the numbers are made up but the
sentiments are not.) Three telling you you're an idiot for believing in
quantum mechanics in the first place. Twelve telling you that the
physics establishment is a huge conspiracy to protect the status quo.
Four telling you that Einstein and Heisenberg are the source of all
evil in modern physics, and that Newton rules. Two will tell you that
there is no such thing as radioactive decay, and that this was
discovered decades ago by the physics community, but hidden from the
public to suppress the scandal of the century. Two will tell you that
radioactive decay is the lie of evolutionists who, in secret league
with the relativists, want to cover up God's revealed truth of
creationism. The thread you started will quickly degenerate to
subthreads devoted to crankish pet theories, bombastic attacks against
"abstract mathematics," and other anti-establishment rhetoric -- from
the bizarre to the incomprehensible to the insane.

I think you're over exaggerating here. Yes there are a few,
easily identifable extremists. I don't think Peter or anyone
else will have any trouble spotting or being fooled by such.

But I think that these are not what scare the modernist here.
What scares'em to death are dissenting perspectives that are
rational. It are these that could easily lead the novice
astray.

So, what are the agendas here? First, the conventional one: To
promote the standard viewpoints held by most physicists. But this
is the minority here. Most posters here reject that. They hold to
a number of "alternative" viewpoints:

1) Relativity and quantum mechanics are the delusion of the
devil designed to take people to hell, literally.

Funny, I've never seen the Devil mentioned or this perticular
viewpoint. Could you post a reference to any posting that
had this view? Boy, and here I've been here for about 11 yrs,
and missed'em all.

2) The standard theories in modern physics are faulty, mostly
because they do not employ easy-to-understand mechanical
models, full causality, and "physical reasoning" (whatever
that means). And there are those here who want to tell you
about their personal pet theory that will one day replace
relativity and quantum mechanics.

Yes there are dissenting metaphysical foundational perspectives.
That is to be expected.

3) Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, and Lorentz are the only physicists
anyone should read. Anything done by anyone else is of the
devil.

Boy, there's that Devil again. Still haven't seen it. In fact
I aven't seen this particular perspective. What I have seen
(and for Peter's benefit, it's my perspective) is that the view
nature is too damned weird to ever understand, don't bother
is a shallow defeatist metaphysical view. The mechanist (not
mechanical) foundational perspective (as illustrated by those
mention above) have an appear lacking in the don't bother
modernist one. This does notclaim or suggest that modern
science should be ignored, or that anything or one is 'of the
Devil'.

4) A few post here for pure entertainment, not for the advance
of knowledge or ideas per se. Some of them get a kick out
of bullying, name calling, and defaming others and boost
their own egos in the process. To some of that crowd, posting
is just a lurid sport that has the entertainment value that
anyone who enjoys a cockfight or a snuff film would appreciate.
One wonders if the reincarnation of Caligula posts here.

Again, Peter will be able to easily spot these types.

5) Abstract mathematics is of the devil.

Devil again? I'd also like to see a post of this type.

So, do you really want to get involved in all this roman
collesium physics? And I haven't even mentioned the great
diversity of views on the side of the isle representing the
more or less conventional physics!

My advice to you is to go to your nearest university and get to
know an amicable physics grad student and let him or her answer
your questions.

In other words, stick around and you're in for a wild ride.

Paul Stowe
.

Quantcast