Link for the boyfriend

[treeskin]

Got this off the campus infolist; someone sends out links to teaching resources periodically. Anyway, there's a 3-hr mini-series from PBS on the Elegant Universe--String Theory. The email said it's all online. Have fun!

Comments

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of us that have interest in science have also seen the possible relationship between 'magick' and the yet-do-be-quantified physics.

Some people look to Science as the Truth Detector; the absolute.
If you go back and look, there is of course the famous "bumblebees can't fly" situation, along with way too many 'scientific facts' that have been disproven for this to be True.

For me, what Is IS.
It is Science that is growing and developing.
We allow ourselves that when Science grows and learns enough to be able to wrap its theorems around something, when Science finally develops a way to measure something older than Time, that this previously unbelievable thing is now Fact; it is now Scientifically Proven, and therefore it's OK to believe it.

"I have this nifty pair of calipers. Everything that I can measure with it is Real. Anything I cannot measure with it is theory, conjecture or myth."
Kinda limiting for my tastes.

For some, Science is the Religion; the go/no-go switch that tells you what you can believe. Yet a thousand years ago, look where Science was. The Universe was as it is now, but Science saw it compeletely differently.
The Universe did not fundamentally change; Science did.

So which is the more stable, more "believable" entity?

Once upon a time, there was a 2 dimensional world. It was completely composed of 2 dimensional geometric entities. They were happy in the security of their 2 dimensional world.
One day a sphere, happily going along its own way, passed through the plane of this 2 dimensional world.
To the 2 dimensional creatures, a strange and unknown Point suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It started to grow in every direction. Curiousity surrendered to abject panic; their scientists used every tool they had, and predicted that the evil would consume their entire world. The 2 dimensional creatures waged war on the evil; but to no avail.
In time, the Priests came to dispell the Evil. All rites and rituals were hurled at the Evil.
About this time the equator of the sphere was passing through the plane.
The Evil was shrinking; it was getting smaller! Religion was saving the day!
The Evil shrunk back to a point and disappeared completely.
The 2 dimensional world was shaken forever.
The sphere was only aware of a tickle that was moving from its bottom to its top and giggled.

"Captain, his manuevers indicate 2 dimensional thinking..."

Sometimes Science is not the Be All - End All our society wants it to be now, is it?

[bladed-pentacle.livejournal.com]

Continuing this train of thought here in my journal...