Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 16:38:39 -0400
From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <bradmcc-AT-cloud9.net>
Subject: Re: Scientists break speed of light (A red herring?)


Arun-Kumar Tripathi wrote:
> 
> Greetings All,
> 
> Well, I alreyd read the below news elsewhere --but I will wait for more
> solid findings and results. Anyway, this is a great news, in exploring the
> speed of light!
> 
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, JF Koh wrote:
> > SCIENTISTS claim they have broken the ultimate speed barrier: the speed of
> > light.
> > In research carried out in the United States, particle physicists have shown
> > that light pulses can be accelerated to up to 300 times their normal
> > velocity of 186,000 miles per second.
> >
> > The implications, like the speed, are mind-boggling.
[snip]

In his "Ode to Man" in _Antigone_, Sophocles wrote that
many things are strange, for strangest of all is man; in
_An Introduction to Metaphysics_, Heidegger explained the
reason for this entirely clearly: Man is the strangest of all
things because he finds everything strange except for *himself*.

I am willing to entertain speculations that faster-than-light
travel may have lots of implications (borrowing from Sophocles,
again:) for both good and evil.  But are these implications
potentially *mind-boggling*?

Somehow I cannot see the difference between the airspeed 
indicator dial of a B-29 reading 200mph, and the velocity
indicator of a real-life StarTrek spaceship reading warp 9
(or whatever...) being *mind-boggling*.  Both instrument
readings actualize in particular circumstances persons'
understanding of their lifeworld as a place in which travel
is possible and where the distance between origin and 
destination can be measured, etc.

If anything is mind-boggling, it seems to me it is that
persons have minds at all, i.e., understandings of a world
and understanding that they have an understanding of 
having a world, etc.

In no way do I wish to imply that the consequences for
physical theory of faster-than-light travel may be
significant.  I doubt they will be as significant
as Copernicus or Newton or Galileo (or, I read in an article
this week, Gilbert...), who did the literally mind-boggling thing
of causing us to think "scientifically" instead of 
theologically.

   I said that all material in nature, the mountains
   and the streams and the air and we, are made of Light which
   has been spent, and the crumpled mass called material casts
   a shadow, and the shadow belongs to the Light.
                             (--Louis Kahn)

The shadows are interesting (which is an understatement
esp. in those cases where the shadows snuff out the Light).
But let us not forget about the Light itself ("lux mentis;
lux orbis" -- our each individual experiencing).

Let me propose what is really mind-boggling: That the
social organization of the laboratory which did the
faster than light experiment is probably class-stratified
with Professors, Asst Professors, grad student assistants,
lab techs, etc. --> I propose this is something which
a future, more enlightened society may find as
mind-boggling as we find traditional Hindu caste society
and slavery and human sacrifice.

Contra StarTrek, Space is not the final frontier: humanity
becoming increasingly self-accountable (viz. Husserl) is 
the final frontier, within which everything [including
breaking the "light barrier"...] finds its
place....

+\brad mccormick

-- 
   Let your light so shine before men, 
               that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)

   Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)

Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / bradmcc-AT-cloud9.net
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
-------------------------------------------------------
<![%THINK;[XML]]> Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/


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