Aristotle rears his ugly head, again

Time, motion and change. Aristotle calls time the number of motion. Whilst reading “The Fabric of the Cosmos” by Brian Greene, I stumbled upon a quote: ‘No one has as yet found the definitive, fundamental definition of time, but, undoubtledly, part of time’s role in the makeup of the cosmos is that it is the bookkeeper […]

Photons, Special Relativity and a Question

Okay, I know when you add relativity to quantum mechanics you get all sorts of ugly infinities. But I was thinking about probability waves yesterday, wondering what they were, and I discovered a little thought experiment. Considering only special relativity, we can take the Lorentz transformations and apply them to a frame of reference. Just […]

Probability Waves

I was thinking about quantum mechanics again. In the standard pop-science book the author usually asks the reader to visualize a flat surface with different heights of waves on them. These waves, unlike water waves which show higher points of energy, for example, actually show in this visualization, the differing probabilities of a particle being […]

Determinism in the Clockwork Universe

In classical (Newtonian) physics, the underlying philosophical assumption is that with the initial state given (positions, motions and masses) all future events would be entirely determined. We could also follow that logic in reverse to see all past events as well. Classically speaking, this would pose a difficult situation for ‘free will’. It almost reminds […]

Turing Machines and Brains…

The Church-Turing Thesis states that any function that is computable can be computed on a Turing machine. Basically, this boils down to computers being able to solve any algorithmic function. Supporters of so-called ‘strong’ AI claim that a robot could be built that is ‘sentient’ or self-aware. This claim really says something not only about […]

Classical Scale, Quantum Observation

Quantum results (bilocation, wave/matter smearing, uncertainty) do not occur on the classical scale – that is, the scale on which we as observers exist. We do not observe baseballs, houses and cars following the same patterns that we find in sub-atomic particles. Classical scale objects follow classical rules. But I did find the exception to that […]

Quantum Observation and Observer Created Reality

The discovery of de Broglie waves of matter, the difficulties associated with quantum observation, and Bell’s theorem all conspire to show us that the non-classical physical world in which we live can have various philosophical implications. With the basic conclusions of quantum physics implying that matter (energy) acts like a wave until a measurement is made, at […]

A foray away from mathematics (for a change)

While bored and surfing the internet the other day I came across yet another post on Evolution and the accompanying argument in the comments between creationists and evolutionists. Frankly, I’m sick of the entire debate. Maybe my thoughts over simplify the situation, but both camps seem to miss the boat entirely. Creationism (in the common […]

The Vernal Equinox

I was thinking today (as it is the first day of spring) how we identify dates. The calendar day flips over every evening at midnight. This makes sense. Noon is midday, the halfway point, so we take twelve hours in either direction to determine the calendar day. But the equinoxes and solstices are determined by […]

What would St. Thomas say?

About six day creation? Why, let’s ask him: I answer that, in discussing questions of this kind two rules are to be observed, as Augustine teaches. The first is, to hold the truth of Scripture without wavering. The second is that since Holy Scripture can be explained in a multiplicity of senses, one should adhere […]