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BB and LL Debate the Essence of the Cosmos

Note: BB sent me an article comparing football to the exploration of Mars, which I agree are similar.  But, when I read past the introduction, it was clear to me that he didn't mean what I thought he meant. He was comparing the two, but that comparison had them as two very different things.  One was real and one was not. So, I wrote him a note explaining why myth was a form of reality.  Part of his response, which is immediately below, set me off across the cosmos again.
 

BB wrote: 

Good stuff.  You gave me much to think about. You wrote: This is because myth is symbolic.  A representation of a thing, not the actual thing  Abstraction is the key to human intelligence and thus all human accomplishment. I agree completely.  We may disagree, though, about the existence of an objective reality.  Concepts can be formed to describe mythic creatures, but a Leprechaun and a Leopard are different in a way that is more fundamental than their name.  The concept leopard has a referent in reality.

LL replies:

As to the reality of myth, let me offer this. 

I am a HAM radio operator.  After all these years of an electronic world, nobody knows what EMR, or electromagnetic radiation is.  They know where it is and what it does, but not what it is.  They call it a wave at times because during some experiments it acts like a wave. They call it a particle at times because during some experiments, it acts like a particle.  Lately, they call it a "wavicle," for convenience.  Mostlly they call it a "field."  You can say to the physicists, "An ice cube is made of water.  A brick is made of clay.  What is a field made of?" 

They  will tell you a field is a force with certain charisteristics within a volume of space or space-time.. 


Einstein said that gravity is a "hill in space time" -- that is, space-time is like a giant flat fishnet and objects with mass sink down in it.  Rockets trying to break free of that object must climb out of that hole.  Little objects make little depressions.  Big objects make big depressions.  It takes a velocity of 25,000 mph to break free of Earth.  You can launch yourself free of an asteroid by just jumping. 

Gravity is a field, Newton thought.  Einstein didn't like the field designation because, unlike EMR, he couldn't manipulate gravity.  Put it in a box and use it.  One should be able to use fields (forces) to do things.  So, he invented gravity wells, which do not offer manipulation characteristics.  Nobody can find negative gravity anywhere.  Just positive gravity.  So, to hell with the field thing.  Call it a hole. 

Is wind "real" like your leopard, or unreal like your leprechaun?  What is wind made of?  Moving air.  When air isn't moving, it isn't called wind.  So, wind is a term which describes what a thing is doing.  What makes air move?  Atmospheric pressure differences.  What causes atmospheric pressure differences?  Heating and cooling.  What causes heating and cooling of the atmosphere?  The sun and the revolution of the Earth.  So the force that causes wind is a combination of infra-red radiation and photons of light  from space, and planetary rotation?  What causes photons to come to the Earth from the sun?  Thermonuclear fusion.  What causes thermonuclear fusion? 

Gravity. 

And what caused the Earth to rotate? 

Gravity.  (The law of the conservation of angular momentum applied to a gaseous volume of space left over from the detonation of a star, combined with the coriolus effect.  What causes the coriolus effect?  In a toilet on Earth, gravity and planetary angular momentum. In space?  I don't know.). 

What then, is the force that created the sun and the Earth, and maketh the Earth to spin and the rain to fall and bringeth forth all things living and not living, great and small? 

Gravity. 

What then, is gravity made of?  Since only leopards are made of leopards, it must be leprechauns. 


LL/OrMag 

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