Ernie: As a wild guess, you look at my stuff the way that I look at your stuff-
with pretty much the same reaction, viz, "I never thought of it that way," followed by some moments of total amazement and a final reaction along the lines of: "They're coming to take me away, hey, hey, they're coming to take me away..." I'm impressed, in other words. I do think that the "junk" metaphor is useful, but technically you may well be quite right. When it comes to physics you lost me around paragraph #2, so I don't know nearly enough to tell if there really is or is not some "junk" to allow for in the science involved. But the value of the "junk hypothesis" in the social sciences is that it makes us -your favorite word- humble when thinking we can devise laws of history when all that is currently possible are generalizations or maybe (maybe) weak laws that rest upon strong generalizations. History and sociology are hopelessly complicated because they are so incredibly multiple factor in nature. And maybe there is no junk in social science, either, but as things are we are many years away from sufficient knowledge to think any other way than that there is a lot of junk to take into account. Physicists have it so damned easy :-/ But your point is well taken :-) Sincerely, Heisenberg ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Centroids <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 12:44 PM To: [email protected] Cc: Billy Rojas Subject: Re: [RC] F= M+A+ Junk Hi Billy, Um, there’s no junk. Einstein still respects F = M * A. M just gets reinterpreted. http://www.mrelativity.net/relationshipef/the_relationship_between_e_and_f_p1.htm Lesson for today Not sure what the real lesson is... E Sent from my iPhone On Dec 16, 2018, at 12:40, Billy Rojas <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Ernie: Sometimes I tune in to a lecture given by a teacher at LCC who has a couple of shows on one of our education channels. This is strictly hit-or-miss, as when I need a break from my studies and there is no football game to watch nor a program with a sexy actress who has nice breasts to look at. In these circumstances 'professor' Borrowdale can be a tonic To be sure, half the time he either is wrong about something or no better than half right. But now and then he "clicks." Today was one such occasion. He was discussing physics, specifically the problem posed by the existence of two kinds of physics, Newtonian and Einsteinian, Say we have an equation, F (Force) = Mass plus Action. Or Mass plus Energy. But in the world of frontiers of science nothing is ever that simple. For making stew, OK, F =M+A works out just fine. Or for mixing cement or a large number of other ordinary tasks. But if you want to send an astronaut to the Moon or Mars, that equation will not do at all. Why not? Because of the Einstein factor. Relativity is real, hence the equation should really be: F= M+A+ Junk with "Junk" being all the stuff from GRT that you need to take into account as well as whatever stuff must be considered thanks to Heisenberg and quantum mechanics. This is similar to the problems faced by historians when trying to generalize about history. There never is the equivalent of F=M+A, it is always "+Junk" with Junk referring to quirks of nature, foibles of human nature, chance events, lost opportunities, mistakes, and so forth. This has direct relevance to creating education policy or creating a new kind of school or devising a new kind of theology or a new political philosophy and you-name-it. There can never be F=M+A, it is always F=M+A+ Junk. Lesson for today Billy -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
