Revised 2015-09-02
With strict application of the Ten
Assumptions of Science[1]
in neomechanics, we discover that there are numerous impossibilities otherwise
proclaimed as possible by various indeterminists. We have mentioned many of
these throughout our books and within the 332 Blog entries prepared to date.
There you will find detailed arguments against these impossibilities. I put
them here in short form as a convenient reference list. I expect to add to this
frequently, since indeterminists generally have overactive imaginations. No
telling what they will come up with next.
1. A person exactly like you
exists on some other planet.
2. Action at a distance is
possible.
3. All electrons are identical.
4. All things are objects or events.
5. Clocks flown in jets around
Earth proved that relativity was correct.
6. Dark energy exists.
7. Discovery of the
gravitational redshift proved that relativity is correct.
8. Eddington proved that spacetime
around the Sun was curved.
9. Einstein was the greatest
scientist of all time.
10. Energy exists.
11. Energy has mass.
12. Energy occurs.
13. Extrasensory perception is possible.
14. Evolution can occur in reverse.
15. Evolution can stop.
16. Fields do not contain
matter.
17. Force exists.
18. Force occurs.
19. Gravitation is a pull.
20. Gravitation is an
attractive force.
21. Gravitation is caused by
curved spacetime.
22. Humanity is becoming
increasingly uncivilized.
23. Humanity will commit suicide.
24. Ideal objects exist.
25. If the universe were
infinite, everything would be possible.
26. Individual photons travel
all the way from galaxy to eyeball.
27. It is possible to travel
back in time.
28. It is possible to make
perfect predictions.
29. It is probable that there
are two identical snowflakes.
30. Light has mass.
31. Light is a particle.
32. Light is a wave-particle.
33. Matter and mass are identical.
34. Matter can be turned into energy.
35. Matter is not infinitely subdividable; a finite, solid particle exists.
36. Measurement errors can be eliminated entirely by improvements in
technique.
37. Motion has mass.
38. Motionless matter is
possible.
39. Matterless motion is
possible.
40. Momentum exists.
41. Momentum occurs.
42. Nonexistence is possible.
43. Perfect precision is
possible.
44. Perfectly empty space
exists.
45. Perfectly solid matter
exists.
46. Photons exist.
47. Some events may not have
causes.
48. Spacetime exists.
49. The Big Bang Theory will
never be replaced.
50. The brain and mind are two different things.
51. The cosmic redshift is due
to the Doppler Effect.
52. The cosmic redshift is due
to the expansion of space.
53. The Higgs boson gives mass to matter.
54. The Tired Light Theory is
false.
55. The universe began with a “quantum fluctuation.”
56. The universe consists of
space and time.
57. The universe exploded out of nothing.
58. The universe had a beginning.
59. The universe has four dimensions.
60. The universe is 13.8
billion years old.
61. The universe is expanding.
62. The universe is finite.
63. The universe will end in “heat death.”
64. The universe will have an ending.
65. The unobserved quantum particle does not exist.
67. There are a finite number of causes for every event.
68. There are more than three
dimensions.
70. There are parallel universes.
71. There is free will.
72. There is no aether.
73. There is no evidence for aether.
74. Time can dilate.
75. Time is a mysterious object.
76. Wave-particles can produce
the Doppler Effect.
77. We need free will to make
decisions.
78. Without free will, society
would break down.
79. Without relativity, the Global Positioning System (GPS) would be impossible.
80. Wormholes are passages into other universes.
81. You do not exist; the event of your birth exists.
82. You will not be able to
think of any more impossibilities:
83.
As I have said before, the neomechanics
and infinite universe have an infinite number of possibilities as well as an
infinite number of impossibilities. Next week I will list the possibilities of
which I am aware.
[1] Borchardt,
Glenn, 2004, The ten assumptions of science: Toward a new scientific worldview:
Lincoln, NE, iUniverse, 125 p.
---, 2007, The Scientific
Worldview: Beyond Newton and Einstein: Lincoln, NE, iUniverse, 411 p. [ http://www.scientificphilosophy.com/The%20Scientific%20Worldview.html ]
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1 comment:
Comment 20150928 Uncivilization
You wrote: Explain this please: "65. The unobserved quantum particle does not exist."
I thought you rejected such things as "quantum particles".
[GB: Remember Luis, these were neomechanical “impossibilities,” many of which are commonly reiterated by regressive physicists. I consider “quantum particles” simply to be aether particles. They exist whether observed or not, of course.]
You wrote: This is certainly not an impossibility:
"22. Humanity is becoming increasingly uncivilized."
If humanity is plunged into a thermonuclear war or an ecological catastrophe, the post-war society could easily revert to religious darkness, feudalism and even slavery.
[GB: 22 is obviously false, your speculations about the future notwithstanding. You need to reread the section on “The Rise of Civilization” ("The Scientific Worldview" p. 281+) where I discuss the regressive, static, and progressive views on the subject. Also see Pinker, Steven, 2011, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined: New York, Viking, where he shows that the level of violence has been declining throughout the ages. BTW: If there ever was to be a nuclear war it was when Reagan shook us up by saying: “Better dead than red.” The prospects for a third world war are ever declining as resources become more globalized and the capitalists who normally would instigate such a war already have stakes in almost every country. It is no longer a simple matter of invasion, genocide, and occupation. In isolated areas there are, of course, there are occasional regressions toward the feudalistic practices you mention. That is why we say that progress is spiralic. Note that the determinism-indeterminism philosophical struggle follows the same pattern (p. 14 in "The Scientific Worldview").]
]
You wrote:
"23. Humanity will commit suicide."
Why is this impossible? Cults can draw in thousands of people, and there's no reason that a post-apocalyptic society couldn't come under the sway of a cult leader who proposes mass suicide.
I'm being slightly facetious, of course, but these things are POSSIBLE even if not particularly LIKELY.
[GB: That would be one big cult—currently 7 billion folks all having to be equally stupid. Good luck with that. It is almost impossible to get even a few people to agree on the same thing, much less suicide. What you propose is species suicide, which I discussed on p. 302 of "The Scientific Worldview" in the chapter on “The Myth of Exceptionalism.” There is no evidence that any species has committed suicide. All extinctions result from changes in the macrocosm. Humanity eventually will become extinct too—when Earth is hit by a large asteroid or when the Sun runs out in 4 billion years or so—but it will not be by its own hand.]
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