On 1/15/2014 7:44 PM, Stephen Paul King wrote:
Dear LizR,
But stop and think of the implications of what even Bruno is saying. *Space is
completely a construction of our minds.* _There is no 3,1 dimensional Riemannian
manifold out there_. We measure events and our minds put those together into tableaux
that we communicate about and agree on, because our languages, like formal logical
system, force the results to obey a set of implied rules. We formulate explanations,
formulate models and look for rules that the models might obey. Hopefully we can make
predictions and measure something...
Sure we create models like spacetime - BUT we can agree on them and they are successful
models both in prediction and in explanations leading to other models. You write *like
this a new discovery.* The set of rules isn't implied, it's quite explicit: The model must
be the same for everybody in every circumstance. Physics is intended to apply
everywhere. That's why momentum and energy are conserved. These models are our best
guess about what's out there. So it makes no more sense to say _"There is no 3,1
dimensional Riemannian manifold out there" _than to say "There is no computer monitor in
front of me." or "I'm a brain in a vat." or "There is no refrigerator in my kitchen."
Brent
I really really like Bruno's notion of an observer. If only we could see eye to eye on
the definitions of some other concepts... Such as that Computation is an *action* or
transformation, not a static "being".
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