marc.geddes.domain.name.hidden wrote:
>
>
> On May 8, 3:56 pm, Brent Meeker <meeke....domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>> marc.ged....domain.name.hidden wrote:
>
>>> 'The Laws of Physics' don't refer to human notions (they certainly
>>> are not regarded that way by scientists
>> They are by the scientists I know.
>
> The *knowledge* we have of the laws of physics are human notions. But
> the laws of physics *per se* are not.
All the laws of physics we know of, or ever will know of, are.
>See other post. Think computer
> science and information. Our concepts are information and so is
> reality.
How do you know what reality is?
>So in the case of useful concepts there has to be a partial
> match between the information content of the concepts and the
> information content of reality. This means we can infer properties
> about reality from our concepts. The distinction between map and
> territory is not absolute. A simulated hurricane for instance, has
> *some* of the exact same *information content* as a real hurricane.
But some is not all. The hurricane embodies the information of our fluid dynamic model of a hurricane plus a whole lot more.
>
>
>>> - the whole notion of an
>>> objective reality would have be thrown out the window if we thought
>>> that there were no objective laws of physics since as mentioned,
True. But ask yourself why you think there is an objective reality, as opposed to being a brain in a vat or a simulation in a computer or a number in a UD? It's not because you perceive reality directly.
>>> physics is the base level of reality), but are precise mathematical
>>> rules which have to be (postulated as) *universal* in scope for the
>>> scientific method to work at all.
>> Sure, they are precise mathematical systems, which the scientist hopes and intends to describe (part of) an objective reality. But the map is not the territory and scientists know it.
>
> See above. And read Tegmark's paper! ;) In the case of mathematics
> the distinction between map and territory is breaking down. Remember
> what we agreed on earlier - math is *both* epistemological (a map we
> use to understand reality) *and* ontological (the territory itself)
I have never agreed that mathematics has the same ontological status as "reality" (whatever that is). I think mathematics is all a human construct which is used to describe reality and a lot of other stuff. I've read Tegmark's paper; that doesn't mean I accept it as 'the truth'.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Tue May 08 2007 - 13:59:04 PDT