On 9 March 2014 19:23, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/8/2014 9:53 PM, LizR wrote: > > On 9 March 2014 18:51, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 3/8/2014 9:36 PM, LizR wrote: >> >> On 9 March 2014 16:52, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Yes. See Noether's theorem, and particularly Victor Stenger's >>> discussion thereof, which is far better than anything I've written on >>> it. Brent has posted quite a bit on this. >>> >>> In summary, conservation of energy is due to the time invariance of >>> our physical theories, which is a constraint we have chosen for our >>> theories. We could choose a non-time invariant theory, and such a >>> theory would not have an energy conservation law. It may be a rather >>> silly thing to do, but just like one can use Ptolemy's epicylce theory >>> to compute the positions of the planets, it is certainly possible. >>> >> >> This seems to fall foul of David Deutsch's analysis of the bleen/grue >> theory (I think it's called). That is, it's positing an unnecessary >> complication apparently simply for the sake of it. A theory with energy >> conserved isn't *just* a human choice, it's also the simplest choice >> available. Or at least it appears to be. Surely this is a constraint we >> normally use (Occam) ? And the simplest and most reasonable assumption is >> that that is how the universe actually works, although admittedly this is a >> metaphysical assumption. >> >> >> Well sure, it seems like the simplest choice *now*, but for thirty >> millenia or so before Newton, Carnot, Gibbs, Boltzman, et al, it was >> *obvious* that everything on Earth tended to run down and come to rest, >> *its natural state*. >> >> > In other words, science has made progress. > > Just don't get too cocky. > > I don't think you need to worry about that.
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