barrington interview

Lee · 14 Oct 2014, 18:50 · from 2014-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:50:09 -0400
Subject: (urth) barrington interview
Message-ID: <BLU175-W506FA3CE08D549F76A5127CFAD0 at phx.gbl>

>Dave Lebling: We have made observations that extend throughout the 

>electromagnetic spectrum in wavelength and in distance/time almost as 

>far back as the Big Bang and thus an equivalent number of light-years away. 

>That is not a "tiny corner." 

Perhaps true. But all those observations were made from earth or nearby and relayed

to earth. Furthermore all the data was collected by human-constructed machines.

Then all the data was processed and translated into pictures and numbers and 

other human tools which help us understand things.

You are impressed with our mastery of the electro-magnetic spectrum. But what

lies beyond gamma rays? And what other spectrums exist  which we cannot

perceive in the slightest?

The answer must be, "We don't know".

Both coming and going, the data you cite has human bias stamped all over it. We cannot

escape or transcend our own basic humanity. Everything we do and everything we

think is intrinsically human and limited by the limitations of being human. There is no way 

to avoid that. Math and science were invented by and are used exclusively by humans.

>We have seen no evidence that the laws of physics are different anywhere in 

>the universe.

Absence of evidence does not prove a negative. That's a pretty basic tenet of science/

logic. Especially in such a sparsely explored realm as "the universe".

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