The missing link of The Theory of Everything.

[austintorn@aol.com]

Forgive the cross contamination

Nope, you are not forgiven. You must now do ten push-ups. Thanks in advance.

[Mohan.C]

A good question to ask would be whether or not things that can't be observed are considered to be real or exist beyond observation etc.

If we were to say that physical laws could still exist despite them being unobservable, then could we similarly say that other unobserved things also exist?

I think there's a selective double standard embedded in this (I'm often guilty of doing the same though and it's a challenge to untangle the knots).

Of course, we can "say that other unobserved things also exist" if it were not so, life wouldn't be interesting. ... Its because, we don't know everything we are trying to find it out.

Real is a tag we put after we have verified what we have observed. So, we can't say what we can't see as unreal. Its unobserved. But, we can't accept what we can't observe and measure because if we do, we'll be removing the demarcation between "real" and "unreal" (believe me I would love that). But some people love that demarcation as it makes things easier for them to "classify".

[Mohan.C]

Would you accept that time is an unchanging entity and it does not change, but perhaps it is us and our measures of it which do? Time also seems practically attainable, but not all matter seems that way. But if we give it time, perhaps time will give the practically unattainable to us? Space seems to change all the time. I'm not certain it or matter qualifies. Mental constructs develop over time and time is infinite. So could time be "the" mental construct?

The idea of "father time" doesn't bother me too much.

I don't mind the concept of "father time" either.

For human perception time has no meaning unless it is measured. Everything does exist absolutely, but nothing can be expressed absolutely. There's nothing we can measure absolutely. Its a relative universe. And when we use the word relative, we are implicitly referring to an observer.

Time even if it exists is relative to how we perceive it, just like everything else.

[austintorn@aol.com]

A rounded life is of both sides of the brain revolving as the yin and the yang, so to speak.

The right side deals with the global and holistic ideas derived from the facts of the left (and vice-versa), say, in art or poetry, the left side devising the logic of form and color of the artwork or the meter, rhyme, and conciseness and the other constraints of the poem.

I do like the right side of the brain. I use it in the semi-grounded fantasies of my fiction writing, although not as much in my poems, for they must reveal truths.

SCIENCE AND THE OLD/NEW
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE

The essence of science
Is conveyed by its Latin etymology:
sceintia, meaning knowledge.

Science itself is then the body of knowledge obtained
By using suitable practices for its fields.

Science has spread into many areas,
Even psychology and the social sciences,
And has become essential,
For science is the most accurate way
Of obtaining knowledge
About anything and everything.

Scholars who spurn science
End up with inaccurate results,
Such as Marx, Freud, etc.,
And they and the religious scholars
Preach blah, blah, blah—
But it’s all up in the air, empirically ungrounded.

The traditional intellectual is being replaced,
For science-oriented investigation now renders visible
The deeper meanings and states beneath our being,
Redefining who and what we are.

The arts and science are now combining
Into an enlightened ‘third culture’
Of a new intellectual landscape—
A Reality Club of the new humanists.

There are revolutionary developments everywhere.
The wonderful whole-like approaches,
Such as those of the long-gone giants
Of Leonardo and Michelangelo encompass all.

The previous incomprehensible humanism
With an ignorance of science
Is fading fast away.

The previous culture that dismissed science
Is soon to become a fossil of the past.

These self-referential disciplines go nowhere,
Being most often concerned with
The exegesis of earlier thinkers,
In which one reflects on
And recycles the ideas of others,
With no real expectation
Of any systematic progress.

They just get further away from reality.

Science poses questions to elicit answers.
And the more science you do, the more there is to do.
Reality is the final check and balance.
There are no fixed, unalterable positions.

Life plays an ever greater role
In the future of the universe.
Science is involved in all the humanities now.
Subject matter is discussed, not intellectual style.

Scientists talk about the universe,
Unlike many old style humanities academicians—
Who only talk about each other.

Those disdaining science
Are doomed to be left behind.

Certainly, human nature is fixed,
But its behavior isn’t,
For it is sensitive to the environment,
Being endlessly variable and diverse.

Change the environment for the good
And behavior will then improve.

There is no real need to fiddle with genes.

The fixed rules of human nature
Can give rise to an inexhaustible range of outcomes.

To know what changes to the environment
Would be appropriate and effective,
You have to know the Darwinian rules.

We only need to understand human nature,
Not to change it.

So, something radically new is in the air:
New ways of understanding physical systems,
New focuses that lead to our questioning
Of many of our foundations.

A realistic biology of the mind,
Advances in physics,
Information technology, genetics,
Neurobiology, Engineering,
The chemistry of materials;
All are questions of great importance
With respect to what it means to be human.

(By some coincidence, after I wrote this,
‘Scientific American’ restated the theme
And has therefore listed the ten recent
Great scientific contributors to humanity.)



Sometimes the mind so much wants to do it function
To know all, that it speculates its way to ‘truth’,
Not realizing that its mere pronouncement
Just floats in the thin air as an unsupported belief.

[dipayankar]

I guess you could be correct. Howver the missing link that you are speaking of will in all probability not be a phenomenon that we experience in the earthly conditions. It could manifest itself in the extremeties of the Universe, something that the human mind is not tuned to...

Could it be possible that we have yet to find the theory of everything because we are missing an important step from current physics to the higher level physics of a new world?
I want forum members to consider that there is a missing link yet to be discovered in science that brings us closer to a theory of everything, before this takes place discuss the possibility that the theory of everything is unfathomable to today's greatest minds unless this missing link is found, and what if any possibilities are there for explaining a link, i.e. dark matter, string theory, or chance occurences such as life on another planet.

[labelwench]

We are but a piece of the puzzle, examining the whole, as a drop of water might contemplate the ocean that it is a part of.

The answer lies in us, indeed permeates us, and in that sense we know the answer.

We lack the words, maths, images, and tools to express it in a way that all may comprehend.

Exactly because it is so obvious, yet so inexplicable, are we sometimes frustrated.

[MJA]

The missing link looks like this: =
Equality unites all the pieces into the single truth of One.
One = All.
The chain is complete!

=
MJA

[labelwench]

All is connected.

In that we are all one.

The symbol you use has meaning to some, but not to all.

It is one perspective, yet perhaps it is not the perspective of the One?

Some property or perspective that is shared by everyone and everything,

we can still only guess at.

For much remains, that is hinted at, yet still not known.

How may we guess at the potential of things not yet known?

Imagine, if possible, the lives of our grandparents......

From the horse and buggy era to the present, must have been one hell of a ride! And we are nowhere near done yet......hang on........

[MJA]

I know of no greater cause than the advancement of equality.
Do you?
Freedom is this Way,

=
MJA

[labelwench]

I know of no greater cause than the advancement of equality.
Do you?
Freedom is this Way,

=
MJA

We use different symbols, have different perspectives, and journey by different paths, MJA.

Yet, it matters not.

As the river journeys to the ocean, eventually all arrives at the same point, no matter the route or the symbols used.