[ExI] Renormalization (was End of time?)

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message ----
> From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Sun, October 3, 2010 3:39:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Renormalization (was End of time?)
> 
> Ja, but controls engineers use renormalization all the time.  Poles in the
> right half plane?  No problem, drop a zero or two on top of that mean old
> infinity, and it works, aircraft stay in the air, life goes on, etc.
> 
> Here's an interesting take on it however.  The physicists and especially the
> mathematicians hate the whole notion of renormalization, but engineers use
> it unapologetically, and seldom lose any sleep over it.  So now we have
> physicists forced to use what amounts to an engineer's approach and the
> mathematicians throwing rotton tomatoes at it.
> 
> spike

Hmmm. In the 19th Century, Newton envisioned the universe as a giant clock which 
happened to be one of the most sophisticated machines of his day. More recently 
Nick Bostrum et. al. envisioned the universe as a giant computer which happens 
to be one of the the most sophisticated machines of our time. While I have my 
doubts that the universe actually *is* a machine, it could nonetheless be *like* 
a machine of some as of yet unknown type. Then insofar as physics could be 
thought of as an endeavor to reverse engineer the universe, then it actually 
makes sense to use what amounts to engineering techniques to do so.


Stuart LaForge
"Old men read the lesson in the setting sun.
Beat the cymbal and sing in this life, or wail away the hours fearing death.
Their choice is their fortune." - I Ching