Re: Spreading Technology (fwd)

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Subject: Re: Spreading Technology
> From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
> Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:23:37 PST

> >>What did Einstein say? "God does not play dice with the Universe"?

> > This comment was made in reference to the Uncertainty Principle and
> > Einstein's perception of the indeterminancy of quantum mechanics. He
> > supposedly said it so many times that Neils Bohr, who was more
> > philosophically inclined to accept the contradictions in modern physics
> > than Einstein, once became so exasperated that he admonished Einstein to
> > "stop telling God what to do!"
> 
> And after the experiments that pretty much killed the "hidden
> variables" interpretation, one physicist reportedly commented "Not only
> does God play dice, he sometimes throws the dice where they can't be
> seen."

Bohr's objection was one of religion, not reality. His objection was one of
familiarity breeding contempt of God.

It was Stephen Hawking who made the quip about not seeing the dice.

The SU(5) theory was arrived at by political contrivance in 1927 when the
Solvay Conference was called to resolve the various theories that happened
to be flying fast and furious at the time, instigated by DeBroglie. Because
several of these theories were completely in agreement with experiment it was
becoming impossible to make progress because of all the possibilities. The
question asked was "what theory shows the most promise for continued research
and acceptance of requests for operating capital." The SU(5) was arrived at
by majority vote and not experimental verification.

Einstein's objection to the Uncertainty Principle was the same as David
Bohm's. In fact most physicists at the time were opposed to it, the famous 
Schroedinger Cat was meant to be an objection to the theory and in
particular to show how unrealistic it was. If you happen to be willing to do
away with the standard SU(5) theory then the Uncertainty Principle goes away,
a good example is to look at David Bohms 'many worlds' theory as it has no
uncertainty principle involved. Bohm was black-balled by the conventional
physics community because he would not accept the SU(5) even in principle. It
has only been in the last 15 years or so that serious review of Bohm's work
has taken place. Alfven and others have used it and other approaches to bring
many of the basic tenets of the SU(5) and the Big Bang into question.

Interesting aspect is even his most strident opponents admitted their
objection to his theories were based on emotion and mental attitudes and not
on any failure regarding experimental verification. He was and is considered
one of the greatest modern physicists, on a par with Einstein and et ali.

You might check out David Bohm's last book before he died,

The Undivided Universe: An ontological interpretation of quantum theory
D.Bohm, B.J. Hiley
ISBN 0-415-06588-7

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