Comments on “Reductio ad reductionem”

A couple of minor typos: “reduction coud deliver”; “from a combination of quantum with relativity” should be “quantum mechanics”?

That’s a pretty mind-blowing fact; that the color of gold is a relativistic phenomena.

This page made me wonder how The Machines in The Matrix handled nebulosity and ‘leaky ontologies’.

One of my favorite physics factoids is along the same lines: the Sun should not be heavy enough to produce fusion under classical mechanics. Instead it’s accomplished through quantum tunneling.

One way I’ve read it described is this: The pressure in the Sun’s core severely restricts the possible velocities of the protons in there. This increase in certainty about velocity causes a corresponding decrease in the certainty about position. As the positions of the protons gets fuzzier – more nebulous, you might say – eventually they start overlapping. This gives them an opportunity to bypass their repulsive forces and fuse.

Thank you very much for the examples, I finally understood how postmodern critique also applies to natural sciences. Before that I assumed that it mostly applies to social sciences.

The way you described “the transition from cell to non-cell” makes me think of the Ship of Theseus. I’ve always considered the Ship of Theseus to be the the birth of postmodernism, and one of the most important thought experiments in all of ancient philosophy. (Despite its reputation as cute dinner party banter.)