Re: "Horganism"???? Perfect!!

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, crawford j maccallum wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, William Beaty wrote:
> >    ............  The members of our profession - and particularly those
> >    who have responsibility for hiring and for funding research - are
> >    infected with "Horganism", the belief that the end of science (or at
> >    least of our science) is at hand and that all that is left to do is to
> >    grub away at Kuhnian "normal science" following the accepted paradigms.
> >    They believe that there are no mre scientific revolutions possible, and
> >    that we are now in pursuit of nothing but the next decimal place...
>
> Well, it's my (minority) belief that we _will_ reach the end of _physics_
> as we know it in the next century (unless our brains aren't up to it in
> which case we never will).  Then we can get to work on complexity, DNA,
> life, laughter and a few other difficult problems.  I think the remarks
> above are unfair to Horgan, particulary the last sentence.

I agree... somewhat.  Horgan doesn't say that science is ending *now*.
The problem is with everyone else: those who move Horgan's timetable from
the future into the present.

On the other hand, the difference between his views and the views of those
who see no limits... is infinite.  Yes, you can only colonize America
once.  But science is not a physical continent.  A fractal does not have
an finite coastline, therefor an infinite number of "seaports" can be
built.  Those who insist that the coastline is finite are not only wrong,
but they can harm the world by convincing people to prematurely turn away
from a wonderful "job" which can never be completed, even in principle.
This is mysticism, obviously.  Here it's the "mystics" versus the
"materialists".  If the world really is a magical place, then "mysticism"
is the proper science, and "materialism" is an abomination.  Of course,
the reverse might be true instead.  Maybe the world is not magical at all,
and the Coastline of Science is finite, and once it is explored, that's
all, and therefor "materialism" is correct, and "mysticism" is a form of
brain damage.

  "No matter how we may single out a complex from nature...its
   theoretical treatment will never prove to be ultimately conclusive... I
   believe that this process of deepening of theory has no limits."
    - Albert Einstein, 1917

Looks like Albert was a closet mystic?


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