On Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 5:42 AM Marcus Daniels <
[hidden email]> wrote:
I don’t, for example, recognize quantum mechanics as truth. If it turns out there is a convincing explanation why nature has to be this way, then it has to be this way and the “divine” has been cornered. If nature can be some other way,
in regimes that are hard for today’s technology to observe, then those are interesting qualifications or alternative models. It’s all just provisional.
I brought up Planck's views for two reasons:
- His views on religion and his rejection of its foundation of miracle and superstition
- His challenge to the most sophisticated of scientists with "generalized world views" that an understanding/model of "God" is a worthy goal for a scientist.
While I think Action and Bidirectional Path Tracing in Dual Fields is a potential model (Glen and Jon can unpack that in a steel man) I don't want to get distracted by the "How" the synthesis might happen. To borrow from Eric Smith in the
Jim Rutt Podcast: "we shouldn’t try to spin scenarios at this point".
And for full disclosure, upon reflection, my post was mostly targeted at Eric Smith after I saw his comment on Marcus's post.
First was to use Marcus's post as a reiteration of evidence to Eric the deep disdain and hatred many in Science have for Religion which we've talked about in the past and second to potentially engage Eric as one of the few scientists I know with a sufficient "generalized world view" to see the most basic patterns in Science and attempt a synthesis. If not leading the synthesis, at least playing bullshit detector and helping in pointing out potential formalizations.
FWIW, Eric's close colleague, the late Harold Morowitz, expressed similar views as Max Planck.
I know Eric is resistant at the value or even the worthiness of this pursuit. I put this out as a public challenge to Eric and he can decline.
I think it could be one of the greatest scientific contributions of our time.
To Marcus, Glen and Jon, I will try to refrain from casting pearls ;-p (meant in humor)
-Stephen