Michael L.
Coffee swillin' Devil's advocate
I am listening to the 8/31 episode and I am getting that sick feeling again that I get whenever I hear non-physicists throwing around theoretical physics. I went to college on a scholarship and was being fast tracked into the Physics Department. I was a physics major for about a year and then switched to Fine Arts (and dropped out when the Fine Arts department was gutted due to budget cuts). You know what I learned in that year? Lay people shouldn't talk about physics, particularly theoretical physics.
I don't have a problem with researchers pointing out that physicists are now exploring the possibility of faster than light travel, etc... but whenever people start to explain quantum physics, string theory or even Einstein's work, I get a sick feeling.
It seems to me that theoretical physics (not necessarily on this particular episode) are being looked to as the new magic. The mind/universe connection, physics being tossed out as fact when it is very, very theoretical and even the statement Hastings made about "lots of" college physics professors not being aware of proposed higher dimensional space make me queasy. Einstein's model does not guarantee 3 or 4 dimensions... forget it. I am not going to do what I am complaining about, which is to shoot my mouth off about a subject I am not qualified to address. Suffice to say that they were no doubt aware of such theories, as 4 dimensional models have been around for decades. However, since they are simply THEORIES they may not grant them the same intellectual weight as a UFO researcher.
When researchers drop into arguing physics without the education or understanding to back it up, they might as well be presenting evidence gathered by psychic research methods. I wish everyone would stick to facts and gathering evidence, not playing Newton.
I don't have a problem with researchers pointing out that physicists are now exploring the possibility of faster than light travel, etc... but whenever people start to explain quantum physics, string theory or even Einstein's work, I get a sick feeling.
It seems to me that theoretical physics (not necessarily on this particular episode) are being looked to as the new magic. The mind/universe connection, physics being tossed out as fact when it is very, very theoretical and even the statement Hastings made about "lots of" college physics professors not being aware of proposed higher dimensional space make me queasy. Einstein's model does not guarantee 3 or 4 dimensions... forget it. I am not going to do what I am complaining about, which is to shoot my mouth off about a subject I am not qualified to address. Suffice to say that they were no doubt aware of such theories, as 4 dimensional models have been around for decades. However, since they are simply THEORIES they may not grant them the same intellectual weight as a UFO researcher.
When researchers drop into arguing physics without the education or understanding to back it up, they might as well be presenting evidence gathered by psychic research methods. I wish everyone would stick to facts and gathering evidence, not playing Newton.