“The work is important and mysterious.”–Mark S. (Severance, Season 1, Episode 4)
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Disclaimer: my spouse may dispute one or more of the following claims.
Okay, I may be a Mark S., but I am not severed. I am mysterious and important, though! 😁
Cosmic Quote #121
August 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
“History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”–Mark Twain
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It’s time to start rhyming and get this blog going again.
Cosmic Quote #4//Summer Rerun
July 20, 2013 by 5 Comments
“All generalizations are false, including this one.” –Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Droll? We would expect that from the greatest raconteur of American letters. But perhaps this is far more subtle and profound than a mere semantic joke. Kurt Gödel proved with his incompleteness theorems that every self-consistent mathematical system must include statements that cannot be proven–the mathematical equivalent of “this statement is false.” But Twain takes the classic liar’s paradox and applies it, it would seem, to all of existence itself. There are things in life and in science we just can’t determine, and that is the point of The Millennium Conjectures. I need to ponder explanations for what the cutting edges of physics and cosmology are telling us, whether we can test them right now or not. But don’t misinterpret this. One of my readers suggested that if I believe things that cannot be proven scientifically, then it is no better than philosophy or religion. I don’t know about philosophy, but this is most certainly nothing like religion, and for two good reasons.
- First, these are, after all, conjectures and interpretations; things I feel strongly could be true. I do not believe absolutely that they are true. As I said in an earlier post, they are what-ifs.
- Second, I stand ready to alter or drop any of these conjectures if the light of further developments requires that I do so. By further developments I mean new scientific discoveries or better explanations by individuals I consider to be credible scientists.
I don’t know of any religion that says either of those two things–let me know if you do.
Keep the above in mind as I present further conjectures. Quantum Weirdness 103 will precede the next one, coming soon to a computer near you.
“All generalizations are false, including this one.” –Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Droll? We would expect that from the greatest raconteur of American letters. But perhaps this is far more subtle and profound than a mere semantic joke. Kurt Gödel proved with his incompleteness theorems that every self-consistent mathematical system must include statements that cannot be proven–the mathematical equivalent of “this statement is false.” But Twain takes the classic liar’s paradox and applies it, it would seem, to all of existence itself. There are things in life and in science we just can’t determine, and that is the point of The Millennium Conjectures. I need to ponder explanations for what the cutting edges of physics and cosmology are telling us, whether we can test them right now or not. But don’t misinterpret this. One of my readers suggested that if I believe things that cannot be proven scientifically, then it is no better than philosophy or religion. I don’t know about philosophy, but this is most certainly nothing like religion, and for two good reasons.
- First, these are, after all, conjectures and interpretations; things I feel strongly could be true. I do not believe absolutely that they are true. As I said in an earlier post, they are what-ifs.
- Second, I stand ready to alter or drop any of these conjectures if the light of further developments requires that I do so. By further developments I mean new scientific discoveries or better explanations by individuals I consider to be credible scientists.
I don’t know of any religion that says either of those two things–let me know if you do.
Keep the above in mind as I present further conjectures. Quantum Weirdness 103 will precede the next one, coming soon to a computer near you.
The Millennium Conjectures™ 