Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA17695 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 16 Apr 2002 16:49:48 +0100 Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 08:44:26 -0700 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Thoughts and Perceptions To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3CBC46DA.DD63CB08@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Accept-Language: en,ja References: <BB4BF528-5143-11D6-A21F-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Wade,
> What gravity does is a fact of the universe. That we discover and define
> and use it in any way (although, gibbons use it all the time, as do
> birds...) is not due to any concept we hold about any fact.
>
Well, sure it is. Galileo's laws of planetary motion are quite adequate
to explain (predict) the extraterrestrial motions "caused" by gravity
that we see. Newton altered our idea of gravity to include in its sway
orbiting planets as well as falling objects on earth. Without his
insight we might still have an earthbound notion of gravity. And that
view could be just as accurate as our current one (although, perhaps,
less parsimonious than the idea of universal gravity). But without the
meme of universal gravity we would probably not have engaged in space
exploration. The idea of escape velocity would not have occurred to us.
> Gravity is there. Period.
>
> Only an inaccuracy about gravity could be memetic, such as declaring a
> cannonball will fall faster than a turnip. Or, magic tricks designed to
> fool us into thinking there is none, such as levitation illusions.
>
There are two major coexisting memes about the phenomena of gravity. One
conceives gravity as a force, defined as energy/distace. The
conservation of energy and momentum explains the movement of objects
under the force of gravity or their tendency to move. But an alternate
explanation exists by the minimization of action. Even with the idea of
gravity as curved space-time, objects still follow the principle of
least action. OC, the mathematics of each principle can be shown to be
equivalent. Nonetheless, they are different memes, and their difference
has nothing to do with inaccuracy.
Best,
Bill
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