Re: Srinivasa Ramanujan

Posted by DickT on September 13, 2003 at 07:17:46:

In Reply to: Re: Srinivasa Ramanujan posted by sol on September 13, 2003 at 06:37:42:

sol,

I want to reply to this:
I would like to know further your feeling on what is humanly understood in dimension, and why you feel that what we see around us is all there is? What advantage or disadvantage do you see the idea of dimensions, bringing to the human traits of consciousness that causes you to think it a unnecesssary valuation. I would say please correct me here, as I value your opinion. Even if we might have differences of opinion here, I in no way judge people based on there reasons.

To me the three dimensions of space are a direct intuition, a qualium like "red" or "loud". Everything else, to me, is mathematics, in the sense that I can't intuit it but through math I can learn rules to manipulate it. This include Lorentzian spacetime, and the higher dimensions of string/M theory. Do they "exist"? I suspend judgement. Perhaps in a future theory the representation in 10 or 11 dimensions will be seen as a partial effort which seems as naive to the future thinkers as the elastic luminiferous ether does today. But for the present it is necessary to assume they do exist in order to proceed with the mathematical analysis.

In this spirit, you know I have never criticised your liking for Kalusza-Klein constructions; they are a valid part of modern physics exploration. You and I will just have to differ (in I hope a friendly way) on the sources of inspiration. To me this is a marvelous, awe inspiring result from that small volume of matter in our heads, interacting with standard chemistry and physics. Now indeed that physics may be underlain by 11 dimnensional M theory, somewhaere down adjacent to the Planck level, but I await firm eveidence that the physics at thet level has any organnized effect on thought. I rather see thought as emergent from all the complex physics.

That said, I recently posted about an experiment where a biological molecule was persuaded to exhibit its quantum behavior at room temperatures. This could be seen as encouragement for the ORCH/OR theory of quantum consciousness. We'll see.

"We'll see" is just about my motto in all these areas.

Regards,
Dick

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Follow Ups: (Reload page to see most recent)

• Category Theory as a Philosphical Tool -- sol 10/03/03 (6)
  • Re: Category Theory as a Philosphical Tool -- DickT 10/03/03 (1)
    • Re: Category Theory as a Philosphical Tool -- sol 10/03/03 (0)
  • Re: Category Theory as a Philosphical Tool -- sol 10/03/03 (3)
    • Is Mathematics Created or Invented? -- sol 10/03/03 (2)
      • Developing Intuitiveness in Geometry? -- sol 10/03/03 (1)
        • The Shadows of Things -- sol 10/03/03 (0)
• Re: Srinivasa Ramanujan -- sol 9/14/03 (0)

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