[ExI] Judging radical possibilities

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 26 03:18:43 UTC 2011


From: Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>
>To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 10:51 AM
>Subject: Re: [ExI] Judging radical possibilities
>
>
>On 25 September 2011 12:48, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
>
>This is an interesting statement. Let's (for this thread) drop the question about what we actually think of FTL or relativity, and instead look at the quite interesting meta-question "How do we judge the likeliehood of radical changes of physics?"
>>
>Much as I am fond of QM, I never liked much SR from an aesthetical POV, let alone the severe limitations it seems to impose as far as the realm of possibilities is concerned.
>But I came with years to appreciate its consistency and to some extent its "unavoidability", so I am quite at loss for the time being in assessing the conceptual consequences of an even marginal  falsification of the theory...

Aesthetics aside, I don't see how this neccesarily violates special relativity. The mathematics of SR predicts tachyons if the equations are continued to the complex plane. Science just may have found the first example. Seems more like a win for SR.
 
Just my two cents.
 
Stuart LaForge


"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things bought 
and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke




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