[#20] Teaching Reality: Quantum MechanicsBy Piet Hut
Last week I wrote about teaching physical reality in a more
honest way in high school, starting with the best theory we have of
gravitation, general relativity. The other pillar of
fundamental...
[#19] Teaching Reality: Starting with GravityBy Piet Hut
In high school, students are taught 19th century physics, two
centuries out of date. Mechanics and gravitation appear as it
was known in the late 17th century, and electricity and
magnetism...
[#18] Singularities as Hints, Unrelated to RealityBy Piet Hut
Predictions of technological singularities are as wrong as
predictions of singularities in physics, which have always been the
harbingers of new physics. When any prediction leads
to...
When the Universe was ten microseconds old, mist started to form
in the Universe. By the time the Universe reached the age of
a hundred microseconds, the mist was complete: the Universe was
drenched in...
[#15] Computer Simulations as Dynamical MetaphorsBy Piet Hut
When we want to communicate really new ideas, we face a problem:
we can't easily use existing terms to do so. So how to point
out something new? A quick way is to use a metaphor; a
more...
[#14] Kindred Spirits: Meeting Carl PaboBy Piet Hut
This weekend I flew out to San Francisco, to meet Carl Pabo. We have
only met a few times since we first met 12 years ago, but we are
clearly kindred spirits. We both want to radically change
the...
[#13] Experiencing Theory: The Gate To UnderstandingBy Piet
Hut
Science is based on theory and experiment. We may think
that theorists work with their minds, in an abstract way, while
experimenters work with their hands, directly experiencing
the...
