Recent content by Dave2007

The idea that information is out there waiting to be discovered sounds like the information equivalent of mathematical Platonism. I have a problem accepting information/mathematics as real rather than abstractions that exists only in the "mind". Perhaps you can briefly tell us why you find...

JoeDawg, Good discussion while it lasted. Sorry you chose to leave as you did.~Dave

I think what I said stands without need for rephrasing but your attempt above to fit it to your paradigm does need to be addressed. I suppose I could go into a long explanation but in the end only two principles are important. One, there is no need to posit something more fundamental than energy...

It was intended to be just that. How would you describe the nonphysical? I like "baywax's" answer, how about you? No! I don't believe the "ultimate stuff", whatever it turns out to be, needs an antecedent cause. This is no less logical than to assume that there must be a first cause. If you...

No doubt! But here we have been talking about the physical (energy and matter) as opposed to the nonphysical (the mental, spirits and the supernatural). And what may that thing be? After you name it, tell us what caused it or if it is self-caused. That's odd! In my almost 70 years of...

First off, the 'physical' limitation on evidence is yours not mine; I merely said stronger evidence. But you underscore my point. If someone claims that at the most fundamental level the universe in not physical, they are in essence saying that, in a yet to be explained way, some nonphysical...

Joe and Hendrik, I would say metaphysicians try to answer questions about the assumptions scientists take for granted. In a sense, they are involved in a search for knowledge about the thing in itself--an objects essence. Scientists tend to dismiss these questions as irrelevant because they...

Hendrik, Thanks for your reply; however, I'm not sure I agree that the question of whether the universe is fundamentally physical or nonphysical is irrelevant, and that it is essentially unanswerable. Even though a certain answer is very likely beyond human capability, coherence with hard...

Can anything in the universe be described as nonphysical? I often here mystics describe a particle's wavefunction as nonphysical. Some look to the uncertainty principle in their attempts to support claims of a nonphysical substrate. As I understand it, a wavefunction is essentially a...

Thank you jtbell, your responses have been extremely helpful. Dave

Do you (or anybody else) agree with this statement? If not, please explain. I think a response would go a long way toward eliminating my confusion or perhaps, if you agree, provide confirmation. Thanks! Do you (or anybody else) know the answer to this question and do you agree with the...

Yes, I think this is getting at the core of my confusion but I can't help thinking that a bit of circularity or at least a difference in focus or emphasis lies beneath the contradictions referred to earlier. Let me try to explain. It seems that whether we are focusing on stable elements or...

Thanks for your response! It agrees with information I found at the website: ABCs of Nuclear Science but it does not seem to agree with this posting taken from Wikipedia on Binding Energy. In the example below the parent mass is less than the constituent masses. Is the Wikipedia article wrong...

As I understand it, in all forms of radioactive decay, constrained by E=mc^2, a spontaneous breakdown of an element or isotope occurs: that is, a massive element (parent) decays to a less massive element, isotope or leptons [daughter(s)], plus a release of energy. However, in alpha decay, the...