Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 11:08:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Dr. David Jacobs" <djacobs-AT-cecasun.utc.edu>
Subject: Re: ER & Entropy


Wayne, et al.,

My concern was not that you must come to understand the "words" of N.  I 
merely broke down the question so that one (anyone) could proceed to 
answer the question from within (and then from without) N's thought.  As 
I took the question, it posed there are two theories (N's and the second 
law) and asks would one violate the other.  My concern was that in order 
to understand one of the theories one has to get into the thinking (not 
merely one theory) of N.  I was not trying to say that you, Wayne, have 
not read N (nor should you spend you life reading him).

Tom Blancato described my statements as "nonsense."  I was 
treating the question seriously.  Tom writes, "if the second law is what 
it is, can there be ER?"  My questions were attempting to put this into   
question this.

Nietzsche does not think scientific theories (and I apply this to the 
second law) are what they purport themselves to be.  They are, according 
to N., like all theories -- fiction (N. uses this term both in a 
pejorative and in a positive sense depending on context).  Could the ER 
be if the second law is what it is?  Yes, they are both creative fictions 
and strategies in our manipulation of the world.

When Wayne tries his approach "let's simplify the world to consist only 
of...", it is a wonderful and powerful fiction.  In fact, it may prompt 
us to think that the ER cannot function as an objective description of 
the world.  But, thinking independently to follow Tom's advice, we can 
ask are all theories designed essentially to do this?  Or is that a 
presupposition on our part?  I have said a long time ago what my view of 
ER is (it is at times an objective description, a psychological therapy, 
and a destructive strategy on N's part).  My main concern in my questions 
was to prompt us to think through N when referring to him; otherwise, 
his theories fall into what we traditionally think all theories are -- 
objective descriptions.

David Jacobs


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