..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space

[malignd at aol.com]

Lot of clarification behind a rhetorical question.  

It was a rhetorical question.




-----Original Message-----
From: kelber <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, Feb 9, 2012 6:54 pm
Subject: Re: ..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space


It was a rhetorical question.

-----Original Message-----
From: malignd at aol.com
Sent: Feb 9, 2012 5:55 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: ..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space

Granted the solar system model is simplistic, but are atoms real?  Aside from "atoms" being a word/construct, as, I suppose, is "real, doesn't the splitting and fusing of atoms to create bombs show that  atoms are "real"?


Are atoms real?  We can infer their structure, but 
not view it directly.  The model that many of us here were raised on, the solar 
system analog, is just plain wrong.  Still, it was an introduction, a useful 
crutch, to get us (as school kids) thinking about atoms. 





-----Original Message-----
From: kelber <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, Feb 7, 2012 1:21 pm
Subject: Re: ..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space


But how real is the real?  Are atoms real?  We can infer their structure, but 
not view it directly.  The model that many of us here were raised on, the solar 
system analog, is just plain wrong.  Still, it was an introduction, a useful 
crutch, to get us (as school kids) thinking about atoms.  The quantum model may 
be closer to reality, but it "feels" much more abstract. Imagining a 
two-dimensional world is beyond our abilities, but only if we think about it too 
much.  If we accept it, at face value, as a Flatlands-style flat world, then 
it's a useful crutch for thinking about the concept of dimensions.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>Sent: Feb 7, 2012 10:59 AM
>To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: ..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space
ace, the same you? 
>
>What I am saying here is just that the real trumps the mathematical model, That 
the coordinate system of thought , for example, has qualities that don't accord 
with actual space-time qualities as they can be experienced and experimentally 
tested.  


 

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20120209/a6d49d3d/attachment.html>