Origins of the "double-truth"

Arun Gupta suvidya at OPTONLINE.NET
Thu Dec 28 16:21:25 UTC 2000


>>On Einstein and Newton:
>>This is no case of double truth; if the theory of relativity is true, then
>>Newtonian mechanics is not - it is only a good approximation.

But Einstein's theory of relativity is not true, but only an approximation,
because it is a classical ( i.e., not a quantum-mechanical theory).
Relativistic quantum mechanics leads inexorably into quantum field theory,
which is recognized to be an approximation, in part because no one has
figured out how to include gravity.  The best we can (practically) do is
quantum field theory on classical gravity backgrounds, (what Stephen Hawking
is famous for).  Then we have the theology of M/brane/superstring-theory
which seems to tie all the essential physical ideas together, but which
offers no experimental prediction which can be used to rule out the theory.

The quantum field theory, the Standard Model, which ties together all
experimentally known facts extremely well, is recognized to be an
approximation, simply because it shows near-regularities is like that of
Mendeleyev's Periodic Table, but offers no clue as to the underlying reason
for the regularity.

So, modern physics is either a case of no truth at all, or of multiple
truths.

-Arun Gupta





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