Nietzsche wrote on 03/17/08 at 02:02:20:


Cars, trains, airplanes, computers, internet, electricity at home, transistors, must I go on? On what principles do you think all those instruments are made that ensure your extended life expectancy and quality of health after you have got a car accident? Without physics any doctor would be helpless.
Thanks SF for the implicit compliment, but I really think physics (in Dutch "natuurkunde" does not get a capital and I am not afraid to show I am foreign) is not that difficult. The mathematics involved can be, but the basic principles are fairly easy to understand.

@Gambit
What the atomic bomb has to do with reincarnation is that the two are explained by two contradictory theories.

Nietzsche wrote on 03/17/08 at 18:17:01:

Yes and no. Due to the correspondence principle all modern valid theories in physics can be reduced to Newtonian theory. I have done it myself. It is better to say that modern physics is an expansion of Newtonian (and I'd like to mention the great Dutch physicist Huygens as well) theory. Eg wave/particle theory (on the nature of matter) in quanummechanics is essentially a combination of Newton's particle theory and Huygens' wave theory.
See, SF, how simple it can be? 

The penthouse always gains the most rent and remains the sexiest part of the construct, but it would not exist but for a well built and deeply entrenched foundation.

The brightest minds still aim for the stars and what they are made of, while the slightly lessor milk-at-the-bottom-of-the-cream types stay closer to our planet and its daily needs.  The rest, I believe, become civil servants.

Lest anyone be threatened by this apparent heirarchy of intellect.....me, I'm just a lawnmower.

It's so great that the Princess Bride is still going so strong after more than 20 years; yes, its been that long!  When I first saw the movie I was actually a bit disappointed since I thought the book was so vastly superior. But now I can appreciate the difficulties of adapting a novel (much less a classic) and I've come to recommend that screenplay when people ask about great adaptations.  The others are the Godfather and  Adaptation.  But I digress...


"No physics=no genetics "
Huh?   
Genetics actually relies on physics much, much less than other fields.  That's the main reason it was not considered a "hard" science.  But its success has made people question the privileged status of strict mathematic modeling.  If something works but you don't know why...well, it works.  The need for a "solid floor" has basically vanished in many fields and been replaced by "reproducibility".   As Hilliary Putnam said, "We call something a science when it achieves results." Otherwise thinks like 'Social Science' or 'behavioral science' wouldn't make sense.   

I think its also worth mentioning that physics today is very different than physics 200 years ago.  There is no doubt that Newtonian physics was the big mama of the 17th and 18th centuries, but 21st century physics (at least in the laboratory) is a completely different animal.   

Of course, if they can produce a GUT, then this all becomes moot as physics will once again be the obvious choice.  In the meantime, I'll take my extended life expectancy and quality of health over the atomic bomb and checkout scanners at the supermarket.

N.

ps - drkodos your previous post was brilliant.  William Goldman would be proud.

Gambit wrote on 03/17/08 at 03:29:24:


Or for that matter, what does anything have to do with "reincarnation?"

drkodos wrote on 03/17/08 at 04:40:27:


Excellent!

Ostap, 

I got your reference.   

All, 

I borrow liberally from the great writers of the past and present.  I hope I don't have to start citing all my references.  I won't know where to begin or end.

After all, Newton was quoting from Isaiah when he said he was standing on the shoulders of giants.  He is now given credit for the quote.  Does that make sense to you?

Gambit, 

Hopefully nothing at all!