What, Why & How do we Know ?
Roger Boscovich (several different spellings) is an 18C Jesuit I regularly mention here as someone whose intuition of a fundamental view of physics probably influenced Mach and hence Einstein – though precious few if any direct references are discoverable. Apart from a few Boscovich enthusiasts and a few web-pages dedicated to him (and Margaret Wertheim’s … Continue reading “Roger Boscovich”
Just a holding post of references, thoughts and links … I’m researching Roger Joseph Boscovich work directly and in the work of others, following this initial post; https://www.psybertron.org/?p=5768, also following through Ernst Mach here; https://www.psybertron.org/?p=5775 and here; https://www.psybertron.org/?p=5802 My pen picture : OK so he was a polymath, with a big focus on geometry – particularly simple Euclidian … Continue reading “Boscovich”
Just collecting links for future follow-up. Roger Anderton over on Friends of Wisdom has a special interest in Boscovich’s relativity work pre-dating Einstein, and in Lancelot Whyte a co-worker of Einstein, who also documented Boscovich work. The Wikipedia introduction is as good a summary as any to start with. (Beware confused nationality and consequent variants … Continue reading “Roger Boscovich 1711 – 1787”
I’ve been following @Katoi (Katøi) for quite some time. I posted about them back in October 2020, when I had noticed a neat dynamic graphical representation of the “standard model” of physics and they had an elaboration / correction (simplification) of their own. Now, some of this looks a lot like some sort of “mystical … Continue reading “Katøi Collection”
Way behind on both reading and writing, but have read two great books I need to review / gut. Firstly, below, “Pythagoras’ Trousers” by Margaret Wertheim, subtitled “God, Physics and the Gender Wars“. The Pythagoras connection follows on from my read of Philip Goff, but I’m still not sure where I picked up the reference. … Continue reading “Margaret Wertheim – Pythagoras’ Trousers”
[Posting a draft from 2017] As a rule of thumb, any headline phrased like that kinda question was almost certainly created by an editor as click-bait and invariably demands the obvious answer “No”. So despite being Tweeted by @AnitaLeirfall – generally a reliable source 😉 – I didn’t actually read it beyond a skim of the … Continue reading “Is Matter Conscious? No it isn’t, but …”
As I complete his concluding chapters, I’m taking three themes from Lee Smolin’s “Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution” only one of which is the science. Political Priorities: Science is contingent and always evolving – that’s its main distinguishing feature. But the revolutionary (Kuhnian) and/or evolutionary (Darwinian) nature, as well as the pace and direction, of change in … Continue reading “A World With a View – A Kick in the Nads for Physics”
“Digital Physics” is a “retro-nerd” film whose central character Khatchig is a penniless and frustrated maths & computing student set in the 1980’s (I think). The film itself was released in 2016. It crossed my path on Twitter in March 2019 when a dialogue with Chris Papavasilou ( @ChrisPapavasili ) led me through some questions … Continue reading “Digital Physics, Life, The Universe & Everything”