( Kapital-i, in 'I, myself', now spels Il as in isle or aisle.
Leter y spels ryd for reed or read and partys for parties.
Leter w spels swn for soon. )
Kontents:
Sins nws-papers started ther Gryn kolums, ekology has rival'd astrolojy, as a konsern
with intimat influenses on our lIvs, from nyr or far.
The natural filosofer yus'd to think of himself as apart from natur. He has prIded
himself in being a detach'd observer of the world around him. He didnt sy wI the way he
lwk'd at things shud chanj wat he saw.
He serch'd for the laws that govern'd the motions of the stars and other projektils,
to mak them prediktabl. Laws ar staitments of presis konditions under wich a jeneral
law operats.
Kaos theory was to show how the tIniest chanj in the konditions produs'd a
diferent result, that was unrepytabl and unprediktabl. The klasikal siens
of the pendulum swing is repytabl enuf. But under sertain fors'd osilations, non-repytabl
swing paterns emerj, in thys and alI'd fenomena, as stranj and byutiful as the
intrikat konturs of buterfly wings.
But, long befor kaos theory, klasikal fysisists wer oblij'd to aksept a nw rul that twk into akount the diferent tIms and positions, in wich ther observations wer taken, if they wer to agry that the motions of bodys, they observ'd, folow'd laws of fysiks.
This nw rul was the special theory of relativity. It postulated that nothing kan mov faster than lIt. Trying, to over-tak a lIt ray, slows the klok down; the spas-mesur or ruler shortens, and uon bekoms mor masiv, in uon's fraim of referens, relativ to an other observer's.
Equations wer devis'd ( the Lorentz transformations ) to relat ther diferent spas and
tIm ko-ordinats, as demonstrably the saim observation. Aktualy, ther diferent
mesurments kud be shown to be the saim mesurment, from the point of viw of a
for-dimensional 'spais-tIm'. That is a jeneralisation of Euclid's klasikal jeometry in thry
dimensions with tIm as a forth, spas-lIk dimension.
This komon mesurment in spas-tIm, that al posibl observers hav of the saim
event, is kal'd Minkowski's 'Interval'.
Hens, the ( abyus'd ) konklusion that relativity is reality. Mis-understandings, also, hav beset the Unsertainty prinsipl, that other most renown'd prinsipl of twentieth sentury fysiks.
Relativity show'd that observers must mak explisit ther konditions of observation, for ther respektiv observations to agry. But the Unsertainty prinsipl show'd how observers must also tak into akount the influens of ther observations on wat they observ.
A fysisist kan mor or les akuratly mesur the position or momentum of a sub-atomik
partikl, but not both together. Fokusing a very short wav-lenth of lIt ( an elektro-magnetik
wav ) on such as an elektron, its position wil show-up presisly. But the hI enerjy of
short wavs wil bwst the partikl's momentum.
A low-enerjy long wav-lenth ( lIk a jentl swel ) must be yus'd to mesur the
partikl's momentum. But the longer the wav-lenth, the les klyrly defin'd the partikl's
position.
The mor sertain yu mak of position, the les sertain the momentum, and vice versa. The mesur is uon of probabilitys. And to chws to mesur the uon is also to chws to chanj the other. In efekt, siens and ethiks ar as inter-dependent as spas and tIm.
In an interviw with J W N Sullivan, in The Observer 13 april 1930 ( quoted in C E M Joad's Guide To Modern Thought ) Erwin Schrodinger komented:
the fact that we cannot predict the behavior of individual atoms 'is not a mere practical disability; it is due to the actual nature of things. Thus something like free will is placed at the basis of natural phenomena.'
This may not hav byn Shrodinger's viw always, but the fakt he entertain'd it, at this erly dayt, is perhaps signifikant.
The unsertainty prinsipl is a refutation of pyurly pasiv observation or 'pyur siens'. A minority of fysisists refus'd to aksept that, in prinsipl, the observer must afekt the observ'd, tho this was first notisabl only on the very smal skails of experiments in quantum mekaniks.
The rebel fysisists, inkluding Einstein, argu'd that the theory of quantum mekaniks, deriv'd from the unsertainty prinsipl, was inkomplyt. In the nIntyn thirtys, the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment was aktualy a 'thot experiment' or imajin'd situation, in wich they belyv'd the quantum theory wud be disprov'd. By about 1980, Alain Aspect's experimental teknyk began to show for uon sId of the argument.
Tak a system of tw partikls, hws atributs kansel ych other out. Uon is in an equal and oposit stait to the other, such as spin-up versus spin-down, or spin-rIt versus spin-left. An experimenter may turn a magnetik fyld to a partikl, to chanj its spin from up to rIt. To be konserv'd as a system, the other partikl, no mater how far separated, wil chanj with it, from spin-down to spin-left.
But thos devils advokats, the kreativ kritiks of quantum theory objekted that this wud
not hapen, bekaus it wud be a violation of the prinsipl of lokal kauses.
The champions
of quantum theory said the later wud hav to go, insted. That rais'd the question of how
uon of the tw partikls kud re-orient itself to the other, wen they had not even the tIm to
exchanj lIt signals?
The idea of a quantum is that of a 'paket' of enerjy. Sub-atomik partikls dont gain or lws
enerjy gradualy but in a 'quantum jump' betwyn enerjy levels. If this quantum jump was
limited to the spyd of lIt or les, the transition betwen staits wud not be a jump, but
kontinuus chanj of enerjy.
So, super-luminal konektions betwyn the tw-partikl system syms lojikal. And
experiments, by the 1970s and 1980s wer begining to konfirm thys faster-than-lIt
konektions.
How-ever, other explanations wer sot and the asumptions under-lIing thys tests wer examin'd. The experimenter throws a switch, to afekt uon of the partikls uon way, and ther-by its distant partner in the oposit way. But was that experimenter ryly fry to switch the way he did?
Thys isyus wer diskus'd in the last chapter of Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters. Fry-wil is given an operational myning that shud be testabl, in terms of fry variabls, being the choises of tw observers or experimenters, in diferent lokations, betwyn the tw posibl staits of the tw-partikl system.
Alternativs wer konsider'd: that ther is no frydom in the univers, but that it is uon super-determin'd houl, that never kud be any diferent to wat it was. Or: every posibl option, facing us, has a reality of its own. For instans, the experimenter may hav turn'd the switch up in this reality, but in an other reality he turn'd it down.
Thus, reality wud no longer myn our unyk existens in the univers but many existenses in a 'multivers'. Hens, the many-worlds theory, indulj'd by siens fiktion rIters. ( Indyd, every ges is a siens fiktion until shown a fakt. )
A multivers, in wich every posibility hapens, sujests infinit chois. Konversly, a
univers, in wich only uon posibility hapen'd, kud not disprov we hav zero
chois. Thys tw extrym senarios sujest a houl ranj or spektrum of chois, from
zero to infinit chois.
Also, having chois, to som extent, mIt defin the existens, to that
extent, of a multivers?
Fysisists may jeneralis the konseption of the fysikal univers into a multivers, as argu'd by David Deutsch, in The Fabric of Reality.
How-ever, it shud also be posibl for fysisists to mak explisit and jeneralis the lojik of chois, wich konditions ther observations and, therfor, wat they no. We hav syn this proses in relativity theory, wich alow'd observers to chws wIder konditions of observational agryment, under jeneralis'd laws. Further, the unsertainty prinsipl show'd chois of observation itself an aktual kondition of wat we kud no.
The most jeneral theory of fysiks shud depend on the most jeneral theory of chois. To be truly jeneral it must be a theory not only of fysiks but al human aktivity, inkluding, of kors, elektions, politikal or other-wIs.
It is a fakt that ther is a suksesful jeneral theory of elektions, that has byn evolving sins the midl of the nIntynth sentury ( as explain'd on my web pajes Sientifik method of elektions and els-wer ).
Richard Lung.