Sunday, November 9, 1997
Still working on That Fated Shore! Planning to finish roughing out chapter eighteen this week!
I mentioned last week that I had received Lawrence Krauss's new book. I found it interesting though I will admit to snickering more than once at the arrogance of his "Physics is All" attitude. One wonders when the adherents of Scientism will confess that science can only tell us what is useful, not what is true. Since science works from within the system that it supposedly studies in an objective matter, it is inherently subservient to that system and cannot provide us with an adequate analysis of anything outside the system. It's like the citizens of Mainframe from the 3D animation cartoon Reboot. They only understand what the Great Programmer in the sky wished them to understand.
But . . . I expect this oversight from those who ascribe to Scientism because the natural universe has to be all there is or what they worship becomes inadequate. There was one point in the book, however, where my Arrogant-o-Meter went "TILT!" At the beginning of chapter fourteen, "The Ghost in the Machine," Krauss states,
"The physicist Frank Wilczek once confided to me that the most amusing physics blooper he regularly heard in the mass media is the description of some development or other as a 'quantum leap.' At the risk of sounding like William Saffire, let me elaborate. This phrase has come to denote a 'great leap forward, of huge significance.' Needless to say, that's the exact opposite of what a quantum leap really is."
This is when I snorted because I was just almost certain that the word "quantum" had been around quite a while before the wonderful world of physics co-opted is for their own uses. And--since I happen to Webster's Third New International Dictionary ("Since 1847 the ultimate word authority for schools, libraries, courts homes and offices" ;-), I looked it up! Guess what? "Quantum" is based on the Latin quantus which means "how much." The first definition for "quantum" is, "quantity, amount." The second is "a certain or allotted amount." The third is "gross quantity: aggregate, bulk." And in the fourth definition finally gets to the definition used by physicists!
Now I will grant you that I haven't done an extensive word etymology to determine the exact progress of the term "quantum" but I would guess that--at the very least--it meant a "measurable amount" long before it had anything to do with physics and if I told you that I had made a "measurable amount of progress" with a certain problem, you would probably infer that I had made significant progress not minuscule progress. So even if physics invented the term "quantum leap," I don't see any reason that the rest of us can borrow back the term and return "quantum" to one of it's original meanings--thereby rendering the phrase "quantum leap" to refer to something of significance. (Aside from the fact that the creation of quantum mechanics was considered a bold leap forward in the first place and therefore it serves as a adequate analogy of progress.) But, in Krauss's case--since Physics is All--whatever "quantum leap" means to physicists, it must mean that to the rest of us. Right.
I had a few other things to mention today but I'm out of time. I'll get to them next week!
By the way--for those of you who are in the Joplin area--I'll be speaking on Saturday afternoon at 2:00PM at Uni-Con'97. The convention will be held at the Holiday Inn at Exit 8-B on I-44.
Monday, November 10, 1997
Upload more nits for Scientific Method and Year of Hell. Both files are now frozen!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: The Brash Reflections for the third season of Voyager are officially frozen. However, you may feel free to send in additional nits for the episodes. I will keep the information for future reference and possible inclusion in a Voyager Nitpicker's Guide. Also frozen are Trials and Tribble-ations, along with all movie files. Also, aside from "Trials and Tribble-ations"--which was a special case, there aren't any Brash Reflections for DS9 on the website. Sorry. Just don't have the time to do another series and I started with Voyager when I started the homepage.
Tuesday, November 11, 1997
No uploads planned. Will be working on the December issue of the newsletter.
Wednesday, November 12, 1997
Uploaded a Brash Reflection for Year of Hell, Part II (Last week, I uploaded a Brash Reflection on Year of Hell.)
Thursday, November 13, 1997
No uploads planned. Will be working on the December issue of the newsletter. (Depending on how things are going I might upload a Brash Reflection for "Starship Troopers." Several emails have come in. I haven't seen the movie yet but I could still start a file.)
Friday, November 14, 1997
Uploaded a new Ask the Chief Column. (Click here for last week's column.)
Also, I began a new file for Rick Kuzma's Star Trek: Voyager Statistics.
Saturday, November 15, 1997
No uploads planned.
United We Nitpick!
Phil
P.S. While you're surfing, be sure to stop by my Shameless Plugs page and the
Bantaam Doubleday Dell Home Page. Of interest,
the Spectra Science Fiction Forum
(http://www.bdd.com/spectra) and the
Star Wars Forum
(http://www.bdd.com/starwars)!