🚀 go-pugleaf

{Thomas wrote:

If it was the other way round (like charges attract) and we would still
exist... we would build a differnt theory around it and would be as happy
as we are now.

So why do they repel or attract. why do masses attract each other?
Why does Dr. Pepper taste better in the non-diet version?

Noone knows.}


        It seems we are now caught in a semantic argument, specifically:  what
        does it mean to ask "why" in the context of physics.  One
        interpretation is that "why" means "what is the cause".  Why does an
        object released from rest above the earth's surface fall with constant
        acceleration? Because that is its natural motion.  That was a
        satisfactory explanation for two thousand years.  But Galileo and
        Newton's dissatisfaction produced new theories, which in turn have made
        so much happen for us in the modern world.  These theories don't just
        make us happy- they empower us: and that is the criterion by which we
        judge them valid.
        Of course all theories can be shown to regress to some ultimate
        question about the nature of things, but so far we have been
        consistantly pushing that stopping point back.  And as we do, we
        approach that truly ultimate "why":  why do things have a nature at
        all? Why is there a universe with properties, laws, constants?

Connie