On Mon, Jul 25, 2005 at 07:06:50PM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote: > > > For most of us in this list, the 3+1 dimensional spacetime we inhabit, > > with its stars and galaxies etc is an appearance, phenomena emerging > > out of constraints imposed by the process of observation. > > Right there is the problem. Let's focus on what you are *referring* > to in your first sentence: "the 3+1 spacetime with its stars and > galaxies". We must keep clear the difference between what you are > *referring* to and our observations of it, or our perceptions of it. > They're not at all the same thing. > > So when you use the dread "is" and write "For most of us... the > spacetime *is* an appearance", we've already gone over the edge. > No. The spacetime that you probably meant is *not* an appearance, > and we should not talk about it as if it is an appearance. *It* > is whatever is out there. Yes, our understanding of it may be poor. > Yes, it may not be at all as we *think*. In fact, it cannot in > in any literal sense *be* what we *think*. >
The trouble is, _is_ is exactly what I do mean. 3+1 spacetime is an
appearance, an emergent thing, an illusion perhaps (although I detest
that term). Whatever the "territory" may be, what most people think of
as reality is the "map", not the territory.
Cheers
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A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 8308 3119 (mobile)
Mathematics 0425 253119 (")
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Australia http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
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