🚀 go-pugleaf

On Jun 27, 10:16 am, Pentcho Valev <pva...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jun/22/end-science-unifie...
> "Are we witnessing the end of science?.....Progress in science needs
> researchers who are not afraid – or who are encouraged and rewarded –
> to ask awkward and difficult questions of theory and of new data. It
> is easier to question mainstream views if you are independently
> wealthy, as many scientists in previous ages tended to be. But I
> wonder how many of us would do so if we were employed by the state and
> our career progression depended on the validation of our peers?"
>
> Two scientists "employed by the state" who "question mainstream
> views":
>
> http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00000313/
> Jos Uffink: Bluff your Way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics
>
> http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a909857880
> Peter Hayes: The Ideology of Relativity: The Case of the Clock Paradox
>
> In the era of Postscientism questioning mainstream views is useless
> because nobody cares about questioning mainstream views. In other
> words, the death of science is IRREVERSIBLE:
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090316/deresiewicz?rel=hp_picks
> "The most striking thing about the way we talk about science these
> days is just how little we talk about it at all. No large fundamental
> question focuses our attention on the adventure of discovery; no grand
> public project stirs our reflection on the perils of technological
> control. Nothing for decades has approached the imaginative impact of
> relativity or the double helix, the moon landing or the bomb."
>
> http://www.nyas.org/publications/UpdateUnbound.asp?UpdateID=41
> Lee Smolin: "Then, about 30 years ago, something changed. The last
> time there was a definitive advance in our knowledge of fundamental
> physics was the construction ofthe theory we call the standard model
> of particle physics in 1973. The last time a fundamental theory was
> proposed that has since gotten any support from experiment was a
> theory about the very early universe called inflation, which was
> proposed in 1981....A growing number of theoretical physicists, myself
> among them, see the present situation as a crisis that requires us to
> reexamine the assumptions behind our so-far unsuccessful theories. I
> should emphasize that this crisis involves only fundamental physics
> that part of physics concerned with discovering the laws of nature."
>
> http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/ingdahl2.html
> "But there has been a marked global decrease of students willing to
> study physics, and funding has decreased accordingly. Not only that,
> the best students are not heading for studies in physics, finding
> other fields more appealing, and science teachers to schools are
> getting scarcer in supply. In fact, warning voices are being heard
> about the spread of a "scientific illiteracy" where many living in
> technologically advanced societies lack the knowledge and the ability
> for critical thinking in order to function in their daily
> environment."
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/22/schools.g2
> "We are nearing the end of the "World Year of Physics", otherwise
> known as Einstein Year, as it is the centenary of his annus mirabilis
> in which he made three incredible breakthroughs, including special
> relativity. In fact, it was 100 years ago yesterday that he published
> the most famous equation in the history of physics: E=mc2. But instead
> of celebrating, physicists are in mourning after a report showed a
> dramatic decline in the number of pupils studying physics at school.
> The number taking A-level physics has dropped by 38% over the past 15
> years, a catastrophic meltdown that is set to continue over the next
> few years. The report warns that a shortage of physics teachers and a
> lack of interest from pupils could mean the end of physics in state
> schools. Thereafter, physics would be restricted to only those
> students who could afford to go to posh schools. Britain was the home
> of Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Paul Dirac, and Brits made world-
> class contributions to understanding gravity, quantum physics and
> electromagnetism - and yet the British physicist is now facing
> extinction. But so what? Physicists are not as cuddly as pandas, so
> who cares if we disappear?"
>
> http://www.i-sem.net/press/jmll_isem_palermo.pdf
> "La science souffre dune forte perte de crédit, au sens propre comme
> au sens figuré : son soutien politique et économique, comme sa
> réputation intellectuelle et culturelle connaissent une crise grave."
>
> http://dogma.free.fr/txt/EK-ScienceQuiestion.htm
> "Par ailleurs, on remarque quaujourdhui, les thèses « relativistes »,
> par exemple celle de Paul Féyerabend, ont un impact très fort,
> notamment dans les milieux étudiants. Même si leur diffusion
> saccompagne de contresens et de malentendus, elles servent de socle à
> des critiques de plus en plus vives adressées aux professionnels de la
> recherche : Votre science dit-elle réellement le vrai ? Comment osez-
> vous prétendre quelle se réfère à la rationalité alors que les
> jugements esthétiques, les préjugés métaphysiques et autres désirs
> subjectifs imprégnent sinon sa démarche tout entière, du moins
> certaines de ses phases ? Votre légitimité incontestée est-elle fondée
> sur autre chose que des effets de pouvoir ?"
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/27/science-easier-exams
> "Pupils of today struggle with science questions of the 60s. Evidence
> shows standards are slipping as comparison is made of exam papers
> through the decades. There has been a "catastrophic slippage" in
> standards of science taught in schools, leaving children with a
> superficial understanding of chemistry, biology and physics, according
> to the Royal Society of Chemistry."
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/may/22/highereducation.education
> <Harry Kroto: "The wrecking of
 British science....The scientific
 method is based on what I prefer to
 call the inquiring mindset. It includes
 all areas of human thoughtful
 activity that categorically eschew
 "belief", the enemy of rationality.
   This mindset is a nebulous mixture
 of doubt, questioning, observation,
 experiment and, above all, curiosity,
 which small children possess in
 spades. ... Curiously, for the
 majority of our youth, the educational
 system magically causes this capacity
 to disappear by adolescence.....Do I
 think there is any hope for UK? I am
 really not sure." >
>
> Pentcho Valev

  An excellent message, Pentcho!
 Please tell Harry Kroto that the answer to his question is YES!
 Pretty soon metaphysics - the study of that which physically exists -
will regain its position above physics (the study of how much
      who-knows-what-"this"-is
occurs when "that" happens) in the minds of men, thus in the school
curriculum too.  Then the students will regain their curiosity as to
what
"this" and "that" *physically* ARE.
  As of now, the "theories" of present physics are almost purely
mathematical constructions treating the relations between measured
quantities of various undefined things such as mass, force, energy,
etc. "Relation", however, is only one of the six things of which the
universe is made.  The others are matter, motion, pressure,
organization and awareness, none of which are made of each other or
(except for pressure and motion) convertible into each other or
anything else.
  Because the "things" so quantified are undefined or misunderstood,
and because the unit of measure of "mass" (a quantity of matter) and
"force" (a quantity of net pressure) are identical,
many of the present sacrosanct theories of physics are totally false.
  Because the teachers and professors in our schools BELIEVE those
theories, however, and ridicule those who question the validity of
some of the many IRRATIONAL premises beneath them, such as the present
absurdity that "empty" space has properties that are responsible for
gravity and light and energy etc; intelligent youngsters stop asking
their questions and soon lose interest in physics.
  A word of advice to such youngsters:
IGNORE your teachers (who believe *their* teachers who believed
ditto^3) and study the subjects by reading the landmark papers
yourself and trying to figure out what their data could mean if - as
now - the conclusions of the authors are defective.

glird