From rlpowell@csclub.uwaterloo.ca Mon Feb 12 11:16:53 2001
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Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 14:22:31 -0500
To: michael helsem <graywyvern@hotmail.com>
Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [lojban] More damn imaginary world stuff
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In-Reply-To: <F179UIDSzidnTGBlX0v000093e0@hotmail.com>; from graywyvern@hotmail.com on Mon, Feb 12, 2001 at 07:14:08PM +0000
X-eGroups-From: Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>
From: Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@csclub.uwaterloo.ca>

On Mon, Feb 12, 2001 at 07:14:08PM +0000, michael helsem wrote:
> >From: Invent Yourself <xod@sixgirls.org>
> li'o
> > > <It is entirely possible that ANY deviation from our known laws of 
> >physics
> > > involves a logical contradiction.>
> > > No. It may be that any deviation from the actual laws of physics (known 
> >and
> > > unknown) is physically impoossible -- that no world could actually exist 
> >in
> > > any other way -- but that is far from LOGICAL impossibility, that the 
> >laws
> > > imply, in themselves, a contradiction.
> > >
> >
> >Are you saying that it is impossible that the laws of physics are arranged
> >such that any other arrangement requires a logical contradiction? Can you
> >show me an alternate arrangement that is logically consistent? Since we
> >don't have our complete picture yet, we are not yet sure if any other
> >alternate arrangements are logically possible.
> >
> 
> IIRC, there was somebody who reformulated the existing "physical
> laws" according to INFORMATION rather than energy, in the 70's (i
> blush to admit i read this in Analog); being tautological & a pain
> in the gizzard to think in terms of, it never caught on: but this shows that 
> another Physics than the one we know, is indeed possible in this same 
> universe...

If you are interested in this sort of thing, you may want to read The
Life Of The Cosmos, by Smolin (can't remember his first name), a
professional particle physicist. Written for a lay audience, very
enjoyable.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rlpowell/ BTW, I'm male, honest.
Information wants to be free. Too bad most of it is crap. --RLP

