Occasionally,
we link to some intense debates among regressive physicists. Here is one
submitted by Captain Bligh:
|
|
|||
Astute
readers, of course, will recognize this as a non sequitar. Fields, as anointed
by Einstein and other positivists, are considered “immaterial.” That is, they
contain nothing whatsoever—they are the empty space that was a consequence of
his early ether denial. Nonetheless, these matterless “fields” still supposedly
caused phenomena such as gravitation and magnetism just as the equations
predicted. The matterless ideal perseveres. For instance, according to the
popular press the shock wave measured in the LIGO experiment supposedly
resulted in a “gravitational wave” that caused the compression and
decompression of empty space or “spacetime.” They nevertheless regarded this
ridiculous interpretation as yet another proof that “Einstein was always right.”
There was not even a hint that it was yet another proof that a medium was
necessary for the transmittance of the wave.
In some
ways, the “fields vs. particles” debate is akin to the debate one might
contrive over the two most fundamental phenomena in the universe: matter and
motion. Of course, we reject participating in that debate by considering it a
worthless endeavor best handled by the Fourth Assumption of Science, inseparability
(Just as there is no motion without matter, so there is no matter without
motion). Matter and the motion of matter are equally important. Period. Thus
there is no possibility of “matterless motion,” which is what folks imply when
they juxtapose “fields” and “particles.” The fields of Einstein and of quantum
mechanics supposedly contain no particles that could produce the collisions
necessary to accelerate anything. With such fields one even can imagine action
at a distance, which was an anathema to Newton and anyone else with a clear
head.
It
is beyond me how anyone could imagine motion without something moving. Just
because one cannot see what is causing the motion, does not mean that nothing
is causing that motion. It is time we gave up the primitive idea that the wind
in the willows is caused by immaterial spirits.