Mike:
What does the existence of the CERN collider say about the status of
"Re-Designing Work, Income Distribution,Education".
Ed:
Not much really, except that it helps the mind drift away from all the troubles
of the real world, whatever that is.
Mike:
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Ed:
Oh please...Oh no no no......
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2010 1:15 AM
Subject: [Futurework] Re: Comments
>
> Ed wrote:
>
>> For example, the CERN Hadron Collider is currently being used the
>> attempt to find the Higgs Boson. If it is found, it will move from
>> scientific theory to scientific reality.
>
> My scientific study ran aground on the shoals of higher math somewhere
> between statistical thermodynamics (which I got) and quantum physics
> (which I didn't.)
>
> So I don't understand the wave equation. But, eventually, I think I
> may have gotten a notion of what the wave equation is *about*:
>
> The wave equation is a *probability* wave. An electron isn't
> *anywhere*. It exists, more or less everywhere, but it's not there,
> not any place in particular. It's is just more probably in a certain
> set of places, less probably in others with a negligible (but
> non-zero) probability of being anywhere in the rest of the universe.
> Until you observe it, that is, whereupon, it's precisely where you
> observed it. Oy.
>
> The scanning tunneling electron microscope works this way: You make a
> very, very pointy thing and contrive that many electrons are very
> probably near the point. Then you get that point very, very near to
> something else, so near that there is an increased probability that
> some of the electrons are on the other thing rather than on the pointy
> thing. Then you try to observe them and, if the pointy thing is close
> enough to the the other thing, some of them will be observed on the
> other thing. Counting the electrons (if any) observed on the other
> thing gives a measure of how close the pointy thing is to the other
> thing and (by inference from some other constraints) the shape of the
> surface of the other thing.
>
> I don't know whether that's science, mysticism, metaphysics or just
> rather arcane and high-brow humor.
>
> If the Higgs boson is an object that, in some manner even more
> incomprehensible that the above, causes other objects such as
> electrons and neutrons to have mass but we can't observe one (if we
> ever do) without expending enough money to repave all the roads in
> Texas and enough energy to fire a 1959 Buick to the moon (not to
> mention enough brain power to create a cure for cancer) then science
> has gone beyond my reach as well as my grasp.
>
> What does the existence of the CERN collider say about the status of
> "Re-Designing Work, Income Distribution,Education".
>
>
>
> And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
>
> - Mike
>
>
> There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that
> remains is more and more precise measurement.
> -- Lord Kelvin, 1900
>
>
> --
> Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
> /V\
> [email protected] /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
> _______________________________________________
> Futurework mailing list
> [email protected]
> https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
