Re: Empiry

[twayburn@juno.com (Thomas L Wayburn)]

On Thu, 8 Jan 1998 22:26:48 -0800 Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca> writes:
> What an odd thread. *Everyone* agrees on *everything*! Careful >reading
of the contributions here convinces me that I should probably >worry a
bit less, since the teachers are properly oriented.
> Leigh
Wait a damn minute.  The teachers are concerned about whether or not a
computer simulation of Newton's Law is a study of Nature.  I said that it
was a study of Nature but not the same part of Nature that Newton was
studying.  It is an examination of the part of Nature represented by the
man who programmed (and the men who built) the computer and the Ideals
(which belong to another entire world separate from Nature as we have
come to know and love it) that govern the behavior of the mathematical
ideals embodied in the algorithms employed by the programmer, because the
programmer himself belongs to Nature.   Didn't we?  Or do I need another
rest cure?  Probably both.

  Do not physicists study the correspondence of certain ideals, mostly
mathematical, with various aspects of Nature that the ideals (occupants
of the world of Ideals) have been chosen to represent?  That's why F = ma
represents Nature so very well - *but not absolutely perfectly*. 
Shouldn't I put this in a book or post it , instead, to METAPHYS-L, which
doesn't exist yet - regrettable.

Regards / Tom

P.S.   I love that word.  Let me say it.  Empiry.   Empiry, empiry,
empiry.  Now, it's part of me.  (I must use it in a conversation sometime
today.  Oops, I forgot.  I'm in solitary* today.  Well, soon.)

*Note for the uninitiated:  'Solitary' is inmate slang for solitary
confinement, which is supposed to be a punishment; but, for  those of us
who are too far gone, it's a privilege to be alone with our thoughts,
which we can still depend upon, whereas *tout la monde* has proved false
lang syne.  (I don't remember if 'world' is masculine or feminine?   Or
has its wave function not collapsed yet, in which case it's neither
masculine nor feminine?  Presumably.)

*****************************************************************************

    The author guarantees that a posting of this graceful sort will never
be repeated.  But, then, no two snowflakes are alike.   (This has been
written by an imposter.)