Well, in my psychology, the answer to such a question takes the form of, "what is the larger pattern of which my dumb stuff is a part?"
N From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gillian Densmore Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 6:09 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Unsolved Problems in Psychology Oh oh I have a potentialy unsolvable problem: how come people (me included) constantly do dumb stuff? On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 4:13 PM, Bruce Sherwood <[email protected]> wrote: Newton famously said about action at a distance, "I frame no hypotheses". I take this to mean something like the following: "I completely agree with you that I haven't explained gravity. Rather I've shown that observations are consistent with the radical notion that all matter attracts all other matter, here and in the heavens, made quantitative by a one-over-r-squared force 'law'. On this basis I have shown that the orbits of the planets and the behavior of the tides and the fall of an apple, previously seen as completely different phenomena, are 'explainable' within one single framework. I propose that we provisionally abandon the search for an 'explanation' of gravity, which looks fruitless for now, and instead concentrate on working out the consequences of the new framework. Let's leave it as a task for future scientists to try to understand at a deeper level than 'action-at-a-distance' what the real character of gravity is. There has been altogether too much speculation, such as maybe angels push the planets around. Let's get on with studying what we can." I think Newton doesn't get nearly enough credit for this radical standpoint, which made it possible to go forward. And of course we know that eventually Einstein found a deep 'explanation' for gravity in terms of the effects that matter has on space itself. There are hints in the current string theory community of even deeper insights into the nature of gravity. Bruce On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 1:38 PM, Russ Abbott <[email protected]> wrote: > John, I like your gravity question. If this were Google+, I'd click its +1 > button. My wife, who studies these things, says that one of the > fiercest contemporary criticisms of Newton's theories was that they depended > on a mysterious (magical?) action at a distance. > > -- Russ Abbott ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
