From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Sun Mar 09 1997 - 14:21:59 MST
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On Sun, 09 Mar 1997 Johnny Carwash <carwash@infobahnos.com> Wrote:
>I like being rude, it makes people pay attention.
Ok, fine, but don't be surprised if you get the same in return.
>There's nothing irrational about immutable laws of physics. Except
>Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is not irrational, it's just bizarre.
It's strange that there is a limit on how much knowledge we can have on the
position and momentum of something, and Heisenberg is far from the strangest
aspect of Quantum Mechanics. Take the famous 2 slit experiment for example,
shine a light on 2 closely spaced slits and it will produce a complex
interference pattern on a film, even if the photons are sent out one at a
time. If a photon goes through one slit it wouldn't seem to matter if the
other slit, the one it didn't go though, was there or not, but it does!
Or place a polarizing filter set at 0 degrees over one slit, and one set at
90 degrees over the other, and the interference pattern disappears. Now place
a third filter set at 45 degrees between the slits and the film. The
interference pattern comes back! Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle does not
enter in any of this, it's not that the photon goes through one slit and we
just don't know which one, it goes through both slits, and neither.
>the element Silicon (Si), used as a semiconductor is not a compound,
>it is the element.
That is a gross oversimplification. In the first place the Silicon is not
pure, it must be doped with small but very precise quantities of impurities
or it won't work. In the second place the same isotope of the same element
can have vastly different properties. Graphite, diamond and Bucky-Balls are
different allotropes of the exact same element, carbon.
>you can't seriously think that in the future we're going to have
>silicon skin.
Actually I agree with that, we won't have silicon skin, neither will we have
skin made of protein, we won't have skin.
>the future's going to look alot like it looks now.
I profoundly disagree.
>5000 years ago, society had more in common with today's society than
>it does different.
Yes, both then and now we had to make use of the same ridiculous steam
powered brain slapped together by mindless mutation and natural selection,
fortunately times are changing and a new model is in the wings. A thousand
years from now the Human Race will be as extinct as the Trilobite, probably
less than a century, perhaps only a few decades.
>The future is never alien.
The future is always alien, I don't even try to imagine what things will be
like after the Singularity, I know it would be hopeless.
>It's blind theorizing like that which makes all future oriented
>people look foolish.
That is an occupational hazard that we might as well get accustom to. Future
oriented people ALWAYS look foolish to most, those who are correct look
especially foolish.
>if I shook your ivory towers at the root, too bad.
My my, we do have large opinion of ourselves don't we. Are you really saying
with a straight face that you think your silly little post shook us at the
root?
>I say, WAKE UP!
to the evils of clich‚s!
>With increased power comes increased responsibility. The price of
>liberty is constant vigilance.
I can see you've been reading your 6'th grade civics book again.
>Can I suggest you all go take a refresher course in chemistry and
>physics?
Hey, don't tell me how smart you are, show me. Perhaps you do know more
chemistry and physics than I do, but I doubt it. I would love to go toe to toe
with you on these subjects and have you prove me wrong, it would be a great
education. How about it?
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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