[ExI] Renormalization (was End of time?)

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of The Avantguardian
...
> > 
> > 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... 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... 
> then it actually makes sense to use what amounts to 
> engineering techniques to do so... Stuart LaForge

Ja that is one way to look at it, Avant.  I see it like this:

There are teenage harlots, and there are church ladies.  Both groups
influence the other women, who are not completely comfortable with either
side, but may have some characteristics of each group.

Engineers do things that are mathematically improper every day, scandalously
so, unabashedly.  We get paid, the stuff we do works, we get the job done.
The mathematicians insist on being so very mathematically proper at all
times, and look down on anyone who is not as virtuous as they are.  So in
that model, the mathematicians are the church ladies and we engineers are
the whores.  These groups hold each other in mutual disdain.  

In that analogy the physicists are the high school girls, who identify with
both groups to some extent, but really just want to have fun.

spike