Monday, September 11, 2006
Intelligence?
Today, of course, is the fifth anniversary of 9/11. In today's post on "The Reference Frame" there is a link to a post (right after the London bombings), that is absolutely incredible: http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/07/bombings.html
Dr. Motl's statement at the end is extroardinarily profound and inspiring: "The terrorists and their ideas and ideals simply cannot be dominating over the world of the 3rd millenium." I hope that's true. I hope more people will realize that they don't have to live in fear, because living in fear is submitting to terrorism.
Threats to human safety can come from anywhere, but how many people realize that? Why are most people more afraid of flying than driving, for example? Why is the level of security higher at certain low-traffic airports than at many high-traffic airports? For example, I've noticed that some Canadian airports (particularly Quebec City), use much more sensitive metal detectors than, say, Newark or JFK.
Another example: Last year, Kip Thorne of Caltech lectured at my college about black holes and experiments to test general relativity (such as the LIGO project). He used a bowling ball as a (rather unusual) prop to illustrate a black hole. The security at LAX almost didn't allow him to bring A BOWLING BALL on the plane!
Before the conference, I got invited to sit in on a conference that the other RPI physics professors had with him. He's an extremely modest scientist (he introduced himself to me by his first name), so it's hard to imagine airport security giving someone like him a hard time... unless you go back to reality and understand that anyone can get stopped for any reason.
I hope everyone realizes that although "the front line is everywhere", we as humans have better things to do than live in fear. We have to seek truth. And then we will understand that our problems are not unique, that difficult times have happened before. We know a lot more about the natural world now than we did several thousand years ago, when thunderstorms, earthquakes, etc. were thought of as the wrath of Jupiter or Poseidon. Yet although we know more, we still have to know why our theories work so well. Few scientists, even the most famous ones- if you've read my previous postings- really understand their theories. There are many ways to use science for purposes other than science. Supporters of creationism abuse the anthropic principle, but so do a lot of evolution supporters.
Endnote: The Mensa cosmology colloquium is now totally full. It's a good thing I booked it about four months in advance :) ¶ 5:01 PM
Dr. Motl's statement at the end is extroardinarily profound and inspiring: "The terrorists and their ideas and ideals simply cannot be dominating over the world of the 3rd millenium." I hope that's true. I hope more people will realize that they don't have to live in fear, because living in fear is submitting to terrorism.
Threats to human safety can come from anywhere, but how many people realize that? Why are most people more afraid of flying than driving, for example? Why is the level of security higher at certain low-traffic airports than at many high-traffic airports? For example, I've noticed that some Canadian airports (particularly Quebec City), use much more sensitive metal detectors than, say, Newark or JFK.
Another example: Last year, Kip Thorne of Caltech lectured at my college about black holes and experiments to test general relativity (such as the LIGO project). He used a bowling ball as a (rather unusual) prop to illustrate a black hole. The security at LAX almost didn't allow him to bring A BOWLING BALL on the plane!
Before the conference, I got invited to sit in on a conference that the other RPI physics professors had with him. He's an extremely modest scientist (he introduced himself to me by his first name), so it's hard to imagine airport security giving someone like him a hard time... unless you go back to reality and understand that anyone can get stopped for any reason.
I hope everyone realizes that although "the front line is everywhere", we as humans have better things to do than live in fear. We have to seek truth. And then we will understand that our problems are not unique, that difficult times have happened before. We know a lot more about the natural world now than we did several thousand years ago, when thunderstorms, earthquakes, etc. were thought of as the wrath of Jupiter or Poseidon. Yet although we know more, we still have to know why our theories work so well. Few scientists, even the most famous ones- if you've read my previous postings- really understand their theories. There are many ways to use science for purposes other than science. Supporters of creationism abuse the anthropic principle, but so do a lot of evolution supporters.
Endnote: The Mensa cosmology colloquium is now totally full. It's a good thing I booked it about four months in advance :) ¶ 5:01 PM
