Mike Smith Cosmos

. A quote from the latest ' New Scientist ' gives some food for thought in this matter .:- By Stuart Clark Quote " EVERY age in history has its own ideas about what makes up the universe. Questions about what kinds of things exist go all the way back to the earliest philosophical texts, says Jan Westerhoff, a philosopher at the University of Oxford. For many ancient peoples, basic elements such as earth, air, wind and fire formed the essence of the cosmos. In the past century or so, we have concluded that matter is built from atoms, that atoms are constructed from a small set of elementary particles, and that those particles are fluctuations in a melee of quantum fields pervading empty space (see Why is there something rather than nothing). So, job done reality explained? Not so fast, says Westerhoff. You need to be absolutely clear about the sense of the word reality otherwise the discussion is going to be all over the place. For a start, do only physical objects like earth or atoms count towards reality or things like minds and consciousness, too? Although the scope of our definition determines the complexity of the puzzle, physics should still supply the solution, says philosopher Tim Maudlin of New York University. Physics is about just two questions, he says: -- .- WHAT EXISTS ? and . - WHAT DOES IT DO ? . If you answer both of those questions, then I think you have answered the question what is reality?. Unquote " Mike Ps . This does of course beg the question ... What does it mean , quite, " TO EXIST " ?

All energy , sooner or later come from STARS . ( nearly all ** ) Our sun is of course a STAR . So any new , SUSTAINABLE ,source of energy , must come from either energy bound up in atoms as Radio Activity (created inside stars) , or Comming from our Star , the SUN , comming as Solar Radiation on to the Earth. Of course this Sun activity can place its energy into the atmosphere by evaporating seawater, setting up circulating atmosphere and winds , giving us wind energy . Mike ** Although , I suppose gravitational energy is outside , what I have stated above . As the moon circulations of the earth , pulls up the seas , as tides , the energy which can be extracted by BARAGE SCHEMES.and other water flow schemes. Ref : Tidal Schemes :- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power#Current_and_future_tidal_power_schemes .

.Yes but a lump with .. ' mass' .. ' Charge '. ... 'Spin ' .. A lump of what ? Mike

Atoms In Bose or Fermi statistics, , what does it mean ? And what state are the particles in ? Mike

But surely , that's what the particle is ? Is it not . There is no central lump of anything ( is there ) ? Mike

.. A). But are they ? Surely the fact that two electrons can not and do not have the same identicle energy state, or spin , in their atomic energy level . This is testament to this exclusion idea , that no two electrons can be Identical? Do we know for a fact , that exclusion phenomenon do not equally apply at smaller sub atomic particles , like quarks , neutrinos , etc B) Not sure of the science on this one ? C). Need to think on that one ? Again not too sure --------------- There does appear to be an exclusion principle , away from ' identical ness ' in the animal / human kingdom . male -,female .... Parents ----children , etc Naturally the animal kingdom , and by a study of genetics , close relative breeding is viewed as a retrograde step . In other words , identicle genes crossed in reproduction can ( I beleive , but I am not a Biologist, ) . Can cause weaker strains to develope, thus the species can go into decline ( I think ? ) . --------------- So too my axel , wheel example . ( previously illustrated ) A 5mm shaft will not work , in a 5 mm hole .( at least in practice ) . Mike

There appears to be something in the natural environment , that steers a little bit away, from having an IDENTICLE COPY ? I think ? Even if it is a " round peg in a round hole " ? Thinking of Atomic Particles, Reproduction in living things ( plants and animals , ) . Not sure about microbes ? Even today's society forbids , outright plagiarism,( some difference required ), copyright infringement , etc . Is there BOTH..... An advantage. and. . disadvantage ......in having IDENTICAL THINGS . Clearly a wheel and axel need to have slightly different dimensions to function at all. * Perhaps there is a principle here? Not sure? Mike *. ..

.Well! That is an interesting point. As a paradigm shift is strictly a 'world view ' , you could argue ' it's how we view things , rather than how they intrinsically ' are ' ? Difficult to measure ! , other than by ' human distress, or stress ' ! One would have to ask an Independant ' observer ' that question. Say a passing ' Space Visitor ' , or an ' external Observer ' ? Mike P.s. Paradigm Shift ref Wikipedia :- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift Ref ' world view ' :- https://criticalthinking-mc205.wikispaces.com/Paradigms+%26+World+View .

. blue , 1. You are of course correct . It is the behaviour of ' humans' in their various ways , that has made , and is making , the changed world we are discussing. ( That is apart from natural events or effects. ) By ' safety ' , which you say is your main belief , I presume you mean the safety of individuals , particularly their LIFE ? This issue of safety of life , has and is a growing issue . What with war and safety at sea with fleeing immigrants. ( particularly those at sea in rubber boats ) 2. I am not sure if I have quite fully understood your second point. I think you are saying that with the advance of science and technology , it is harder to make new descoveries, nowerdays ? Or that technology generally , is itself ,making things harder? Perhaps you could explain what you mean technology and science is doing for us ? And what quite you mean by :- " I believe creativity + optimistic characters might help us." ? Mike Ps Your comments ! They are great , thought out comments. Even though I am not quite sure what you mean ? They 'sound ' that they should be right. If that does not sound too " back to front ".

. But it is possible to go 'small' with development . In the sixties ( 1960's ) , the computer I put data in for processing on punched cards , was in three rooms , tended by two or three technicians , hardware weighing probably near a TON . It probably had less processing power than an ( i Pad ) . SMALL has become beautiful ( if it does not explode that is ? ) . In this case, so it is possible . Mike

So . May just be :- The World Society has , slipped into, a 'paradigm shift ' over the last 70 years , of accidentally going from a :- PARTIAL CONSUMER OF NATURAL RESOURCES to a DANGEROUSLY NEAR TOTAL CONSUMER OF NATURAL RESOURCES Oops ! Mike Ps maybe this is the ANTHROPCENE the very recently proposed era for a very specific period of human geological time Ref :- http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/atomic-bombs-and-oil-addiction-herald-earth-s-new-epoch-anthropocene

.--- . The dinosaurs ate and consumed all they could and became extinct . Just maybe . "small is beautiful " Somebody once coined the phrase ... Who said it ? .. They founded a college at Dartington / Totnes, Devon ,UK to him SCHUMACHER COLLEGE " SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL" His core ethos was :- YES ! use the products that nature provides . Like say forest, wood , timber. Yes use a small part of the available timber . A controlled amount , not deforestation . A purposely selected number of trees. And so-on and so-on . A purposely selected, amount of mineral extraction, not complete , not total mining. Think " SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL " was his central theme/ Philosophy. Our problem is . We may only come to accept this philosophy , when IT's ALL GONE ! E.F SCHUMACHER . ECONOMIST , Advisor , writer , about him quote " He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralised and appropriate technologies. " :- ref https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Schumacher Mike

Quite so! Mike

The specific ' issue ' that I think is worth consideration and discussion . Is it possible to have a way of controlling development of the environment including the conditions of pleasurable well being , OTHER than by the Financial Gain and Profit Driver. After all animals accumulate food to survive , not to eat until they ' pop ' Response to comment Mike

Yes! Well clearly , an aerial trip across the Globe in 1943 , and one today , would itself give a distance perspective on world changes! Would it not? However a view at the whole infrastructure, living systems , and culture , within the human framework, as well as its relation to the environment , both mineral and the living environment which includes our own social setting , I am sure would give a deeper perspective of the ' human condition' today compared with 1943 ? For instance : Forests, deserts, countryside, fish, air, transport, wealth, relationships, , music , diversity of animal species, manufacture, technology, education, behaviour, weapons, food , water, To name a few Mike

I should ,perhaps not be pessimistic , and say that, the original question was ' WHAT ' has changed. Something , has radically changed , as many have illustrated. But what are/ is the underlying factors that have brought about that change? And WHAT has mainly changed ? Is it education, technology, freedom , mental attitude, liberation, knowledge, frame of mind , communication ? What have/has been the LARGE.. MAIN. .. DRIVER/s . ? Could it be that :- ' youth ' and/ or ' women '. Or even 'technology' , have/has , got a good hold on the STEERING wheel ? /s ? Mike

.Yes but ! To illustrate the vaste changes. A distant memory .. Is of seeing a milk churn on a stone platform up our lane where we lived. And seeing one of my parents going and using a ladle , pour milk from the churn to a jug ,for our daily use. A modern image is one , of an automated milking parlour , computer controlled , and not a ' milk maid ' to be seen . And shelves full of plastic bottles , full of sterilised milk ready for any milk content , food application. Times have changed .. Probably in this example for the better ! But a different visualisation could be " an example for the worse ! Mike

. I picked 70 years , because I am in my early 70's . The idea being, that if necessary I can talk from a personal observation of life then . ( as I saw it ) , or more to the point " heard about it . ( no T.V. Then , at least in Devon ) . Life was simple . Yet it was just after the Second World War , still had some isolated rationing . And chocolate had crushed 'ants ' in it . As little boys , we played in the road . It was unmade up ( no tar macadam ) . We could scrape a shallow hole , and play ' allies' as marbles were called . You had to knock your marbles , by hitting it with another marble , into the hole . Boy was life simple , trips out to the woods to collect sticks to make ' bows and arrows ' and play ' Cowboys and Indians ' I remember , having way out dreams of the war ( just gone ) . A journey to London took a couple of days, you stopped half way there . I saw my first television in a friends house in London . It was the size of a washing machine . Black and white , blurry picture. Tv was only on a few hours a day . But then we went to school and started to hear about the Korean War, Teddy Boys , and occasional music by Lonny Donigon, and Elvis Presley . And Conny Fransis , 78 revs per minute black ebony records . Computers did not come near the Public until the 1960's to 1970's But then we had the 1960's Cuba Missile Crisis . Things started to hot up then , in ALL sorts of ways , with Music , technology, and things on a ' Global Scale ' . People started to move about the Earth More .including some adventurous Youth ! People started to discuss things openly , more .......... Life changed .... Life has always changed ... But " what a pace of change " we are accelerating into the future ..... Mike

. Last Night : 6000 fleeing people were rescued in ' One Night ' . At sea . BBC NEWS HEADLINES ( am Today ) They were fleeing Africa . Found in a flotilla of boats (off the Lybian coast) , fleeing ( men women and children ) from Africa , hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea for Europe . At the same time , the roads to Calais in northern France , had men with branches , blocking the roads into the French Port of Calais, so as to threaten Lorry drivers to smuggle immigrants into the U.K. We definitely , appear to be in a time of , some sort of , ' world migration Problem ' .! When the ' have nots ' come to the ' haves' , as a well known ' Futurologists ' was heard to say , when questioned on the Future ! What do we do ? " Give them what they ask for ! " Was his reply . If not , you are in for real trouble ! I mean big trouble " Mike

The impact of the collection of Energy from direct Solar Power , seems to be upon us ! You do not have to travel far down a road , to not come upon a " Solar Panel ' farm ". I come to pass one , nearly Daily . The roof of many houses are covered in solar Panels . I am getting, ever so ,gradually nearer my tests as to the practicality of gathering power in space , and sending the energy down as a 'distributed LOW ENERGY supply ' as well as to ' large collecting centres, for HIGH ENERGY ' via a LONG WAVE LINK . Mike

The ANTHROPOCENE is now officially titled as the :- Age when man has over, influenced the world since The 1950,s with RADIO ACTIVE WASTE . PLASTIC WASTE CHICKEN BONES Ref :- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth Mike

One could remember backwards , and recall , Changes of attitude , Changes of experience, Changes of conditions , Changes in out-look, Changes in work, technology, style, safety, hope, aspiration , and a host of other interesting changes. Has this given us a bright view for the future ? More ...? And more ......? Mike

This is all sounding like this : " ALUZA-KLEIN THEORY " which in Wikipedia shows a " compactification principle " putting electromagnetism in with general relativity and gravitational waves " manifolds, fibre bundles , etc ------------- WHY- O - WHY , did nobody tell me , about this , before ? " We did ". I hear as a faint cry " but you did not hear us ! " ( probably AJB , amongst others ..) Is this what happened ? Where was I ,? When this was said ? Asleep ? Ref to Wikipedia " aluza-Klein theory" ....:- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaluza%E2%80%93Klein_theory Mike Ps To quote near end of Wikipedia quote " In modern geometry, the extra fifth dimension can be understood to be the circle group U(1), as electromagnetism can essentially be formulated as a gauge theory on a fiber bundle, the circle bundle, with gauge group U(1). In KaluzaKlein theory this group suggests that gauge symmetry is the symmetry of circular compact dimensions. Once this geometrical interpretation is understood, it is relatively straightforward to replace U(1) by a general Lie group. Such generalizations are often called YangMills theories. If a distinction is drawn, then it is that YangMills theories occur on a flat space-time, whereas KaluzaKlein treats the more general case of curved spacetime. The base space of KaluzaKlein theory need not be four-dimensional space-time; it can be any (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold, or even a supersymmetric manifold or orbifold or even a noncommutative space." I presume these are Examples As illustrated. Dealing with some of the points quoted here from Wikepedia . At least , to some extent , by these previously quoted images ? .

.How can we connect " REALITY " to these two Mediums ? One working with magnetic field , electric field (or charge) and time , The other working with Matter, mass , gravitational field , 3 dimensional space , and time ? Are they comparable , complimentary , or just two totally different sets of dimentions ( linked only by or in time ) ? Mike

. A problem that has come up on this thread , and is or has been discussed in the Philosophy Forum , the subject being :- " space time " and Maths . What is reality? " something to that effect . I followed the arguments put forward , and can see how the search for REALITY can become a blockage to progress quite easily . Some of the arguments seem to lead to a rather daunting answer . Yet this may be a way forward with the subject of this thread concerning " space time " and the idea of the mediums for gravitational waves and Electro magnetic waves . It would appear that dependable , REALITY can only apply to a sequence of causal links ( this depends upon that which depends upon another ) to a limited chain up and down . At the upper and lower end of the chain , the causal links fail to be reliable or dependable and thus if looking for a real cause or link to REALITY , it fades into the distance , up or down as NOT REALITY . In other words there exists a cloud or bubble of REALITY unique to the particular area of the universe. ( not meant to be a physical region , but more a region of scientific consideration) . Which is fine within a certain region . As you reach the edges or extremities of the causal reality ( up or down , causal or predictive ) and the certainty of reality , fades away to nothing . We can move about and exist as rational , scientific , beings in our region of ' space time ' and continue to build our understanding on , real laws , set theories, etc etc . BUT .REALITY only reaches so far out . ( again more from a causal region , than a strictly physical region! ) How does that sound ? Ps . This , does not exclude reality existing everywhere , but we can not have knowledge of that or even know that it exists. ( within science that is , outside of science can be another matter all together ) . It is also necessary that the patch we do know is reality , can exist it its own right . But significant is it that " the most real , reality " is nearer to the centre , of the sphere of consideration .? Mike