[ExI] [Extropolis] DRAFT of my new book

[Giulio Prisco]

On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 8:50 PM John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 12:40 AM Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > "I made the draft of my new book open to a group of early readers.
>> Irrational mechanics DRAFT 03.22.24.
>> DRAFT narrative sketch of a futurist science & a new religion.
>> https://www.turingchurch.com/p/irrational-mechanics-draft-032224 "
>
>
>
> HI Giulio
>
> I read your book, I didn't agree with all of it but I did find all of it to be interesting and entertaining. I made a few comments, you may of course use them or ignore them as you see fit.
>
> John
>

Thank you very much John! I already see that some of your
considerations must find their way into the final version of the book.
This is exactly why I put the draft out.

John is one of those who received the full draft, but I'll send it to
others who want to read it. Some of you guys (e.g. Stuart LaForge and
Jason Resch) made very interesting points (reflected in the current
draft) in previous email discussions. Stuart and Jason (and others),
do you want to read the draft? Of course I'll try to mention all
contributors in the acknowledgments and send them free copies of the
book when it is published.

I'll be replying to John's points. This is my first reply:

> > "A particle at rest on the top of a “Norton’s dome” [Norton 2007, 2021] in an unchanging environment can start moving… at any time and in any direction it pleases, in full compliance with Newtonian mechanics. Norton’s example is carefully contrived and fine tuned, but it shows a simple case of failure of determinism in classical mechanics."
> I don't think that shows a failure of determinism in classical mechanics, as long as that point particle remains exactly at that point it's going to stay exactly there.

NO! Search for Norton’s dome or see the references I give [Norton
2007, 2021]. The particle remains exactly at the same point for an
arbitrarily long time, then starts moving suddenly, all in full
compliance with the equations of classical mechanics. Norton gives a
semi-intuitive explanation of how this can be: time-reverse the
motion, and the shape of the dome ensures that the particle arrives at
the top and stops there. Then time-reverse this and you have Norton's
"paradox." I mention it to point out that classical mechanics is less
deterministic than one thinks.

More to come...