And to me there's nothing more exciting than this journey in which every time we get what we think is an answer we get a whole world of new questions.
Selma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 9:19 AM Subject: Q: Why did the subatomic particle cross the road? > A: It's indeterminate. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > This article from NYTimes.com > > has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [snip] > > How Does a Photon Decide Where to Go? That's the Quantum Mystery > > > > April 20, 2002 > > > > > > > > In Peter Parnell's play "QED," Alan Alda plays the Nobel > > Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. > [snip] > > If all of scientific knowledge were destroyed and we had > > only one sentence that we could pass on to the next > > generation, what do you think that sentence would be? > > > > I believe it is the simple fact that all things are made of > > atoms. > > My proposal: I believe it is the simple fact that > some human beings abstracted from living experience > so far as to conceive that "all things are made of > atoms" -- and, of course, tomorrow we may decide that > it is not the case that all things are made of atoms, > but, if we do, we are likely to replace that human > invention by an even more implausible invention. > > I've never seen an atom > and I'm not much interested whether I ever will.* > But I can tell you anyhow, > I'd rather see than be one. > > -- > * The "tunnelling electron microscope" which won > a couple IBMers a Nobel prize about 15 years ago > does enable us to "see" atoms, in the same > theory- and instrument- laden and mediated way > that telescopes let us see galaxies and > money lets us see value, etc. > > [snip] > > But the world of the very small - the tiny particles > > inside the nucleus - that world we lack a complete > > understanding of. Will we ever understand it? > > > > We don't know. But not knowing is much more interesting > > than believing an answer which might be wrong. > > I have adopted a certain position, not as a final > conviction, but only as a temporary resting place > along a path. What remains in thinking is the > path itself [the process of thinking ever further > beyond whatever we happen to find ourselves > believing at the moment]. (--Martin Heidegger) > > The way is everything; the end is nothing. (--Willa Cather) > > Questioning is the piety of thinking [Nur das Fragen > ist die Frommigheit des Denkens(sp?)]. (--Martin Heidegger) > > > > > We're lucky to live in an age in which we are still making > > discoveries. It's like discovering a new country - like > > trying to get to a strange, foreign place - a country > > almost beyond our imagining. > [snip] > > Apparently even so brilliant and creative a "scientific" thinker > as Dr. Feynman did not "make the transcendental turn" (assimilate > the insights of Kant and his "followers", esp. Husserl). > Apoparently even Dr. Feynman was not a "man without qualities" > [ref. Robert Musil's _The Man Without Qualities_].... > > What *was* Kurt Godel studying in Husserl in his > last days at The Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton)? > > Will we cross the road? > > \brad mccormick > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
