From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Thu Oct 11 2001 - 17:52:53 MDT
>
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2001 at 09:01:37PM +1000, Colin Hales wrote:
> > I quite like it when something gets touted as impossible.
> 25 years of
> > observations tell me it usually means it'll get done sooner!
>
> Aha, so that is why the perpetual motion machines are so common
> these days.
>
> There is a difference between saying something can't be done
> because it is thought to be too complex, uneconomical or just
> unknown, and saying something can't be done because it doesn't fit
> in with a very well tested mathematically consistent theory. It is
> the first kind of impossibilities that constantly get overturned.
> The second kind are far more persistent. The theory might be
> wrong, but such paradigm shifts are rare and often doesn't "fix"
> the impossibility. Usually the way around them is instead to find
> a way around the assumptions underlying the theory, so you can
> exploit phenomena outside its realm of applicability (a good
> example is wormholes in general relativity, that allow "FTL" by
> making spacetime more complicated).
> Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
On the charge of "Magical Thinking 1" I plead guilty, your honour. The
thread has helped me understand better the nature of the phenomena. The
variety of different approaches/views is wonderful. As a one-time member of
'skeptics' I am as down on ill-informed conjecture as anyone. My thought
process is really about.."Here we have a real effect- action at a distance
without delay - " and although it's behaviour is infuriating we are at the
very beginnings of exposure and do not want to stop trying because a QM
model says you can't, no matter how fantastically solid it has been in the
face of endless experimentation. Give to kids and they'll break it. :) Ah I
remember those days when I knew everything. All that happens now is that I
learn a little more about how little I know.
If I may ramble a little longer...35 years ago.....
"Captain Kirk flips open his communicator and says 'Beam me up, scotty'".
>From here I can see my daughter's Ericsson mobile phone (cellphone if you
must) with the flipper/answering system.
"Mr Spock inserts the flat square object into the radio transmitter and
replays his messages of deception to the Enterprise". I am seated next to a
pile of floppy disks almost exactly the same size.
"Please sign here Captain"..the ensign hands the box like object to Captain
Kirk, who signs it and hands. it back. My PDA sits nearby. Smaller,
smarter.
"Subspace message from Star Fleet, Captain". Uhura alerts the bridge.
........ next?
Seems a little silly to generalise out of what seemed then fantastic science
*fiction*, but sometimes things can work out. The final lines of your last
paragraph are, I think, the way through this and the person(s) who set up
this subspace plumbing .....where's the IPO...I want shares now!
cheers
col
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