Something deeply hidden

American Journal of Physics, 1992

Convarsatlons on the dark secrets of phys1cs 1 Edward Taller, Wandy Tellar, and W11son Talley. p. CD. Includas b1b11ograph1cal refarencas and 1ndex.

PAAKAT: Revista de Tecnología y Sociedad, 2019

When we witness an event considered as magical, we are facing an event in which natural rules are apparently broken by the use of supernatural forces. Technology, on the other hand, helps us to break down the barriers of the human being's capacities, amplifying them to the point that they seem supernatural. This article aims to reflect on how advances in science and technology have made possible those events considered as magical and supernatural, and how they have been used historically to redefine the word “supernatural”, and finally how magical effects can serve as a driving force for technological innovation.

2013

Although acceleration is, by its descriptive definition, the expansion of velocity, where celeritas /kɛ'lɛritas/ or /tʃɛ'lɛritas/ is a Latin word translated as "swiftness" or "speed", we prove that gravity is expansion (dilation) of the speed of light (celeritas c), i.e. the genesis of space in time. From this evidence, we explain the arrow of time. Implicitly, the foundation of a complex manifestation of nature is deduced to a tautological relationship between space-time variables, with the consequence of a unification of the reference measurement system. By unique relation, we connect the predictions of General and Special relativity. We introduce the scalar principle valid in all space-time dimensions of the universe.

Early Popular Visual Culture

This text looks at changing relationships between humans and technology in practices of producing and sharing knowledge about the universe, and does so from the perspective of contemporary media theory (Hansen, Ernst, Timeto, and others). The starting point is Eric Joris' artistic research that was part of the Spectacular Astronomy project and that works towards the development of a twenty-first century planetarium. Joris' planetarium stages encounters with the universe that draw attention to the entanglement of humans and technology in historical and contemporary practices of producing and sharing knowledge about the universe, and to parallels between the development of the interaction between scientists and their instruments in the history of astronomy and the interaction between humans and media technology. Technological developments put humans in situations in which they, and their modes of perceiving, are increasingly implicated in larger apparatuses that to a considerable extent operate outside their awareness and in ways to which they have no direct access. This engenders a shift in hierarchy between humans and technologies that starts already in the nineteenth century and in relation to analog technology, and is intensified with the rise of digital and networked technology. These developments foreground the similarities between the modes of operating of media technology and of scientific instruments of measurement and suggest an understanding of the universe as we know it as what Timeto (in Diffractive Technospaces. A Feminist Approach tot he Mediations of Space and Representation. Surrey: Ashgate, 2016, p. 1) proposes to term technospace: a dynamic and contingent formation whose emergence cannot be separated from the generativity of the mediations that traverse it. Planetariums and orreries are means to communicate knowledge about the solar system, the galaxy, the Milky Way, and other aspects of the universe. They demonstrate the relative positions of the planets and their orbits, and offer us glimpses into parts of the universe that escape human perception. Such demonstrations, Bal (1996) argues, are always also performative. They perform gestures of exposure that aim to show 'how it is'. Sometimes these gestures are quite explicit, for example, when a live performer or a recorded voice-over

This paper is a brief (and hopelessly incomplete) non-standard introduction to the philosophy of space and time. It is an introduction because I plan to give an overview of what I consider some of the main questions about space and time: Is space a substance over and above matter? How many dimensions does it have? Is space-time fundamental or emergent? Does time have a direction? Does time even exist? Nonetheless, this introduction is not standard because I conclude the discussion by presenting the material with an original spin, guided by a particular understanding of fundamental physical theories, the so-called primitive ontology approach.

Erkenntnis, 2021

Although many find it hard to believe that every physical thing-no matter how simple or small-involves some form of consciousness, panpsychists offer the reassurance that their claims are perfectly compatible with everything physics has to say about the physical world. This is because although physics has a lot to say about causal and structural properties it has nothing to say about the intrinsic natures of physical things, and if physics is silent in this regard it is perfectly possible that everything physical has an experiential intrinsic nature. Following in Thomas Nagel's footsteps, panpsychists have also argued that by revealing that everything is composed of the same fundamental ingredients, physics provides grounds for holding that if any physical things (e.g. our neural processes) have an experiential intrinsic nature then all must. My main contention in this paper is that the relationship between physics and panpsychism is considerably more complex than panpsychists have tended to assume. Nagel's reasoning may be sound in the context of simplistic atomic theories which posit just one kind of fundamental particle. However, it begins to look distinctly dubious in the context of the diverse range of primitive entities that are to be found in the Standard Model of particle physics. Galen Strawson has suggested that mass-energy interconvertibility should be regarded as evidence that everything physical has the same intrinsic nature. I suggest Strawson's claim relies on a dubious construal of the nature of energy. Special relativity is another of the cornerstones of contemporary physics, and it too makes life difficult for panpsychists, a fact which emerges when we consider what it would like to be a ray of light. However in this case I suggest that there is an interesting-if radical-move open to the panpsychist: they can simply deny that light exists. To conclude I briefly consider whether what QCD has revealed about the nature of mass poses a problem for panpsychism.

Journal of performance magic, 2015

This paper is an attempt to show that a large part of Western society no longer operates on the rationalist principles that most of us thought it did, but that it instead runs by magic more akin to that in fantasy works. The term 'magic' is not meant metaphorically or in science fiction author Arthur C Clarke's sense that 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic' (Clarke 1962), but is meant literally in the sense that Frazer (1890, republished 2003) used the term. This means that instead of trying to understand the present and near future by looking at the works of science fiction creators who put forth a rationalist and technological view of the world, we would understand the future better by looking to the fantasy of authors such as Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes, Ursula Le Guin, Piers Anthony and Michael Moorcock. This magic is manifested through magical thinking and irrational behaviour, where the majority of us use literal spells and incantations in our daily interactions with each other in the networked world, and where we worship capricious gods; most importantly, those spells, incantations and worship actually work, and those gods have actually come to exist. This paper will also show just how the spread of the computer technology propounded by scientists, technologists and SF writers has inevitably led to the creation of this irrational and magical world. This is partly because of limitations built-in to the formal systems on which these systems are based, leading to an extreme example of the law of unintended consequences. Finally, the paper will explain the mechanism by which magic is literally becoming real by reference to Frazer's two laws of magic: the Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion.

2016

This paper is a brief (and hopelessly incomplete) non-standard introduction to the philosophy of space and time. It is an introduction because I plan to give an overview of what I consider some of the main questions about space and time: Is space a substance over and above matter? How many dimensions does it have? Is space-time fundamental or emergent? Does time have a direction? Does time even exist? Nonetheless, this introduction is not standard because I conclude the discussion by presenting the material with an original spin, guided by a particular understanding of fundamental physical theories, the so-called primitive ontology approach.

What Humans Perceive as Time and Space are just Facets of Energy, 2022

Physics might bring recollections of boring and frustrating physics classes at high school, and complicated, long, cumbersome equations based on frightening Mathematics. This is not Physics. Science in general, and the science of Physics in particular, are about human endeavors to understand Nature, the Universe, and the Existence in general. Indeed, Physicists rightfully insist on presenting Physics theories using Mathematics, because Mathematics is the language that Science and Physics utilize, because it is based on unambiguous and precise statements. But if the layer of Mathematics from fascinating Physics theories is peeled off, what is revealed is a layer of fascinating ideas, based on human ingenuity. As stated already above, Mathematics provides validity to Science and Physics theories, because it provides unambiguousness and precision to the elements presented in these theories. But the basics ideas, from which the elements of this layer, of human ingenuity emerged, can be usually presented also by using just common language, because Physics ideas can be also presented, with a limited use of Mathematics. This is what this book tries to do. As already stated above, Science in general, and the science of Physics in particular, are about human endeavors to understand Nature, the Universe, and the Existence in general. As such, in the last few centuries, Science and Physics made significant progress in unveiling many mysteries about Nature and the Universe. Although Mathematics provides unambiguousness and precision to the elements presented in Science and Physics theories, no Science and Physics theory is assumed to be the ultimate truth and embed complete validity, because, after all, all these theories are based on humans' ideas, and limited humans' ability to understand Nature. An acceptable measure of validity of a Science and Physics theory is its compliance with physical experiments, which test the validity of its results. Nevertheless, also these experiments are based on limited humans' ability to devise complete full proof experiments, which might result in observations, which cause the necessity to correct a Science or a Physical theory, or even replace it, with a totally new theory, which better complies, with the most recent observations. And, although Science and Physics theories utilize Mathematics to present their statements, still Physics embeds many unresolved questions regarding Nature and the Universe, and it also embeds quite a few peculiarities and paradoxes. Some of these unresolved questions, peculiarities, and paradoxes, that still exist in the Science of Physics today, are the subject of this book. The author of this book is not a physicist by profession and education. The author of this book is a retired Electronics Engineer. However, many years ago, when the author of this book was a young student at high school, the author of this book found the drive to understand appealing. For example, when the author of this book understood that Einstein's General Relativity Theory concluded, that Mass is just a form of Energy, the author of this book tried to understand why the Electric Charge is not also recognized as a form of Energy, based on many similarities between the Mass and the Electric Charge entities. Recently, when the author of this book retired, he could concentrate on delving into such issues and finalizing the ideas that resulted in several published papers, and this book. As already stated above, this book is about attempts to explain some Physics unanswered questions, peculiarities, and paradoxes, which resulted in a revolutionary conclusion: Time, Space, and the Electric Charge are just forms (or facets) of Energy, like Mass is already recognized and accepted by the science of Physics as a form of Energy, following the introduction of Einstein's Special Relativity Theory. This also boils down into another revolutionary conclusion: Nature is composed of only one entity: Energy!!! From the dawn of civilization humans are struggling to understand Nature. Many ideas, tools and theories were developed during this quest, in attempts to narrow down the elements that are important in understanding Nature. However, the science of Physics today still uses many elements to explain Nature, such as Energy, Mass, Electric Charge, Forces, Fields, Space, Time, etc. This book concludes that all the elements, or entities, used by the science of Physics to explain Nature are just facets of one entity: Energy. As already stated above, the conclusion that Nature is composed of only one entity, Energy, is the result of attempts to explain some unanswered questions, peculiarities, and paradoxes, that still exist in the science of Physics today. These attempts use analysis, which is based only on nowadays acceptable Physics theories, and uses only thinking experiments, logic, and reason, as the tools to carry over this analysis. Although the thinking experiments, login, and reason, used in the above-described analysis, seem as very sound and very difficult to contradict, these cannot be sufficient, to provide complete validity, to what is presented in this book. Thus, in addition to the above, this book also proposes several experiments. If these experiments will be executed, and their results will be successful, as this book predicts, this might provide validity, to what is presented in this book. These experiments require means and funds which are beyond the reach of the author of this book.

Arxiv preprint quant-ph/0107044, 2001