X-Message-Number: 2725
From: 
Date: Fri, 06 May 94 19:00:12 EDT
Subject: CRYONICS newton's third

More musings or oozings after the Plato talk:

Plato would have been dumfounded and incredulous if told that (at least some
of) his ideals and forms do not exist at all--let alone have a greater and
more enduring reality than matter.

Consider the triangle, one of Plato's simplest ideals and forms. In Euclidean
geometry, any three points (not in the same straight line) can define a
triangle and a plane. But in the current view the geometry of the real world
is not Euclidean; space or spacetime is curved. Triangles and planes do not
exist--except as  approximations in regions of spacetime that are nearly
flat.

But does the possible  importance of "nonmaterial" things get a bit of
support from  trends in modern thought tending to support the view that
everything is interconnected? Remote quantum couplings suggest to some that
every particle, indeed every region of spacetime, has "tendrils" reaching out
to every other; the universe is a web, and you can't touch any part without
shaking every other part. In some sense, this might conceivably validate the
Eastern notion that we all share each other's existence.   

Newton's Third Law--or analogs or generalizations thereof--is very likely
fundamental. Every influence is reciprocal; there is no one-way action. This
could mean--among other things--that the laws of physics imply the forms of
matter, and vice versa.  (Or the laws and the forms are aspects of the same
thing.)Thus the universe is NECESSARILY the way it is--exactly--with nothing
arbitrary about it.  (If we decide the many-worlds notion is right, then
substitute "metaverse" for "universe.")

This fits well with determinism, and in fact is an extension of it. Not only
are the motions and interactions of particles fully determined, given the
laws of physics, but the laws themselves and the nature of matter are
mutually determined by each other.

Not everything is possible. In fact, EVERYTHING is IMPOSSIBLE, except those
things that actually happen--a subset of "measure zero." Is that good or bad?

Too soon to tell--much too soon. Meanwhile, we take pleasure in  the fact
that, on a conscious level, we have free will and the capacity to enjoy life,
and the potential means to extend it.

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