Light Eye
07-31-2006, 11:28 AM
dear friends,
http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=9kpgc4td
be well, be love.
david
the madness of black holes
"we find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go
mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with
one new delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new
folly more captivating than the first.
?men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in
herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." -? charles
mackay, extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds, 1852
according to the caption from astronomy picture of the day, (apod), "in the
center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been
seen directly: a black hole. studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling
gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely
attributes. the gas surrounding gro j1655-40, for example, has been found to
display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. given a previous
mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our sun, the
rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating
very rapidly. what physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a
slower quasi-periodic oscillation (qpo) -- in accretion disks surrounding black
holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research."
the astronomer fred hoyle once wrote of the herd mentality in his profession:
?the trouble with conformity is that the process has strong positive feedback.
the baaing starts up at a volume low enough to permit stronger-minded animals to
think for themselves without too much trouble. progressively, however, we break
down one-by-one, losing all power of sensible judgement, to the point where we
can do nothing but add our own baaing to the uproar, which eventually rises to
such monumental proportions that nothing remains for the flock except the
butcher's shop.?
scientists are people and not immune to the madness of crowds. ideas that appear
folly initially may with time and a growing clamour of consensus delude people
into believing it is a new "truth." such is the story of black holes. two years
ago i criticised the theory of black holes and from the correspondence i
receive, some scientists and engineers are "recovering their senses slowly, one
by one."
black holes highlight a situation, common today in astrophysics, where the
object under investigation cannot be seen directly. this situation is pure
heaven for the crowd of mathematical theorists who have hijacked physics from
the natural philosophers and experimentalists. the sainted einstein seems to
have initiated the hijacking with that oxymoron, the ?thought experiment.? but
problems arise when thoughts are governed by a limited set of beliefs or dogmas
and unchecked by direct observation or experiment. the result can be ? and
generally is ? science fiction. university libraries and popular science
magazines are full of it at this start of this new millennium.
[non-text portions of this message have been removed]
http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=9kpgc4td
be well, be love.
david
the madness of black holes
"we find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go
mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with
one new delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new
folly more captivating than the first.
?men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in
herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." -? charles
mackay, extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds, 1852
according to the caption from astronomy picture of the day, (apod), "in the
center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been
seen directly: a black hole. studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling
gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely
attributes. the gas surrounding gro j1655-40, for example, has been found to
display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. given a previous
mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our sun, the
rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating
very rapidly. what physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a
slower quasi-periodic oscillation (qpo) -- in accretion disks surrounding black
holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research."
the astronomer fred hoyle once wrote of the herd mentality in his profession:
?the trouble with conformity is that the process has strong positive feedback.
the baaing starts up at a volume low enough to permit stronger-minded animals to
think for themselves without too much trouble. progressively, however, we break
down one-by-one, losing all power of sensible judgement, to the point where we
can do nothing but add our own baaing to the uproar, which eventually rises to
such monumental proportions that nothing remains for the flock except the
butcher's shop.?
scientists are people and not immune to the madness of crowds. ideas that appear
folly initially may with time and a growing clamour of consensus delude people
into believing it is a new "truth." such is the story of black holes. two years
ago i criticised the theory of black holes and from the correspondence i
receive, some scientists and engineers are "recovering their senses slowly, one
by one."
black holes highlight a situation, common today in astrophysics, where the
object under investigation cannot be seen directly. this situation is pure
heaven for the crowd of mathematical theorists who have hijacked physics from
the natural philosophers and experimentalists. the sainted einstein seems to
have initiated the hijacking with that oxymoron, the ?thought experiment.? but
problems arise when thoughts are governed by a limited set of beliefs or dogmas
and unchecked by direct observation or experiment. the result can be ? and
generally is ? science fiction. university libraries and popular science
magazines are full of it at this start of this new millennium.
[non-text portions of this message have been removed]