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DIRAC_TRUTH

                                         February 17, 2010

Freeman Dyson, while reviewing           "Silent Quantum Genius"
one of the very few biographies          February 25, 2010, NYRB vol 57, no 3
of Dirac, dicusses the older             [ref]
Dirac's obsession with the idea
of mathmatical elegance as the
guide to truth                           ELEGANCE

   Dyson claims that when
   Dirac was doing his best             Dyson suggests that
   work, he wasn't letting the          Dirac and Einstein
   math drive.                          had much in common,
                                        and we could add this
                                        to the list.

                                             I think it was Feynman
                                             who accused Einstein
                                             of wasting the last
                                             20 years of his life
                                             on things like this.


   It is then somewhat peculiar
   that Dyson approves of Dirac's
   agnostic attitude toward the
   philosophy of quantum mechanics.             I believe that the way
                                                Dyson looks at this is
      Here, Dirac argued that we have           that you need to let
      equations that agree with experiment,     experimental results
      and thus the equations should be          drive your
      taken as "truth".  Our experience         understanding, and
      doesn't extend down into the quantum      guide your explorations.
      realm, hence we can't expect any
      deeper understanding to emerge by             I would suggest that
      describing things with words suited           there really is no
      to our everyday lives.                        good way to do this if
                                                    you don't have some
                                                    sort of verbal
                                                    understanding of the
                                                    experimental results:
                                                    You need something
                                                    like a theory of
                                                    what's really
                                                    happening to feel
                                                    engaged with the data.
                                  LAMPPOST
                                                    Empiricism alone
                                                    really won't cut it.

         INSENSIBLE_TWIST




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