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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!

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To: Ilaine who wrote (70273)1/3/2000 12:09:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
Well, it's a philosophical problem. From the end of the article I posted to Joan, marijuana.newscientist.com


Ultimately, the biggest barrier to the construction of a theory of quantum gravity may not be the mathematics, but the interpretation of the mathematics. For example, general relativists are still struggling to understand the meaning of the Wheeler-de Witt equation and its solutions, while field theorists have yet to understand just what it is that their superstrings wriggle about in. Veteran gravity theorist Chris Isham of Imperial College, London, sees even deeper issues starting to loom - issues long thought to be the preserve of philosophy. Perhaps most central of all is the question of whether space and time are merely constructs of our personal experience, as Immanuel Kant argued some 200 years ago.

The mere suggestion that such fundamental concepts cannot be relied on in the construction of a theory would fill most physicists with horror. Yet those who dare to tackle the mystery of gravity are learning to live with such possibilities. As Isham puts it: 'The shadow of Kant is hanging over all of us.
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