Jim Devine wrote: > > this fits with my dissertation: the "falling rate of profit" story > > represents a structural tension at the micro-level. This _sometimes_ > > leads to macro-level over-accumulation.
Just to make things clear, it was I, not Michael Perelman, who said the above. Carrol Cox wrote: > At one time cosmologists believed that the universe contained enough > mass that eventually the force of gravity would stop and reverse the > expansion following the big bang, thus eventuating in a "big crush." > This (given current knowledge) is no logner believed to be the case, and > it is expected that the universe will go on expanding forever. > > That gravitiy will not bring The Big Crush (Crash) does NOT mean that > gravity is not still the most important force governing our world above > the quantum level. (My ignorance of physics makes it impossible for me > to state this quite accurately). In fact a great deal of human physical > activity is totally dominated by gravity. It explains, for example, why > merely standing quietly, even leaning against a wall, can become > wearying. (it also explains why certain traits of biological entities > are not directly controlled by selection.) No big crush, but gravity is > still the biggest force in our life. Biologists, engineers, many other > scientists and technicians spend a good part of their life figuring out > how gravity effects particular concerns or particular questions in their > fields. > > A physicist who felt compelled to begin every paper with a sneer at > cosmologists who forgot that there was no big crush would probably be > told to piss off and get to it. Carrol, I don't get the point of your message. I wasn't sneering. BTW, how is it that gravity "also explains why certain traits of biological entities are not directly controlled by selection." I am genuinely interested: any non-selection force in the evolutionary process is of interest. (I think that biology is flawed to the extent that it falls for reducing evolution to selection.) also, how can we say that "gravity is ... the most important force governing our world above the quantum level"? I didn't know physicists ranks such things in terms of importance. Magnetism is very important, while the strong and weak forces play a role on the macro-level even though they don't seem to do so: after all, any force which has an impact that's distributed so widely through the universe shouldn't be sneered at (as it were). -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
