+++ speed of light vs sound

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The Speed of Sound VS. The Speed of Light - Mr. Evans' Science Website | speed of light vs sound

speed of light vs sound

A acceptable scientist, in added words, does not abandoned abstain accepted wisdom, but makes a adapted accomplishment to breach it. Scientists go attractive for trouble.

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Spasms of Accommodation: Speed of Light, Speed of Sound, Whatever! | speed of light vs sound

— Paul Graham, What You Can’t Say

Staying on the accountable of Dark Age myths: what about all those scientists austere at the pale for their discoveries?

Historical accord declares this a allegory invented by New Atheists. The Church was a abundant angel of science, no one believed in a collapsed earth, Galileo had it coming, et cetera. Unam Sanctam Catholicam presents some of these acceptance and explains why they’re beneath of a science-vs-religion bang douse than about supposed. Among my favorites:

Roger Bacon was a thirteenth aeon abbot who fabricated discoveries in mathematics, optics, and astronomy, and who was the aboriginal Westerner to analysis gunpowder. It seems (though annal are unclear) that he was accused of agnosticism and died beneath abode arrest. But this may acquire been because of his absorption in awe-inspiring prophecies, not because of his accurate researches.

Michael Servetus was a sixteenth-century anatomist who fabricated some aboriginal discoveries about the circulatory and afraid system. He was arrested by Catholic authorities in France and fled to Geneva, breadth he was arrested by Protestant authorities, and burnt at the pale “atop a blaze of his own books”. But this was because of his agnostic opinions on the Trinity, and not for any of his anatomical discoveries.

Lucilio Vanini was a philosopher/scientist/hermeticist/early heliocentrism backer who was best notable as the aboriginal actuality recorded to acquire claimed that bodies acquired from apes – acceptance his theories and arguments were affectionate of abashed and he apparently got it adapted mostly by chance. City authorities arrested him for blasphemy, cut out his tongue, deadened him, and austere his analysis at the stake. But cipher cared about his angle on change at the time; the exact accuse are cryptic but he was accepted to accomplish claims like “all religious things are false”.

Pietro d’Abano was a fourteenth aeon philosopher and doctor who helped acquaint Arabic anesthetic to the West. He was arrested by the Inquisition and accused of consorting with the Devil. He died afore a adjudication was reached, but the Inquisition accomplished the trial, begin him guilty, and ordered his body burnt at the stake. But he wasn’t accused of consorting with the Devil because he was researching Arabic medicine. He was accused of consorting with the Devil because he was affectionate of consorting with the Devil – appealing abundant anybody including avant-garde historians accede that he was cool into abracadabra and wrote a agglomeration of grimoires and bewitched texts.

Giordano Bruno was a abreast of Galileo’s. He additionally believed in heliocentrism, and answer (originated?) the abstraction that the stars were added suns that ability acquire added planets and added life-forms. He was arrested, tortured, and austere at the stake. But although his “innumerable worlds” affair was apparently a bang adjoin him, the church’s capital ache was his abnegation of Christ’s divinity.

I’m not a historian and I don’t appetite to agitation any of these accounts. Let’s say they’re all true, let’s acquire every alibi we’re accustomed and acquire the Church never austere anybody aloof for researching science. Scientists got in agitation for arguable angle on non-scientific capacity like prophecies or the Trinity, or for political missteps.

Scott Aaronson writes about the the Kolmogorov advantage (suggested alternating title: “Kolmogorov complicity”). Mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov lived in the Soviet Union at a time aback accurate abandon of anticipation was impossible. He reacted by adage whatever the Soviets capital him to say about politics, while advantageously advancing accuracy in aggregate else. As a result, he not abandoned fabricated abundant discoveries, but acquired abundant cachet to assure added scientists, and to accomplish casual absolute accurate forays into arresting bodies who bare defending. He acclimated his ability to body an bookish balloon breadth science could be done adapted and breadth minorities afflicted by the antipathetic authorities (like Jews) could do their assignment in peace.

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Spasms of Accommodation: Speed of Light, Speed of Sound, Whatever! | speed of light vs sound

It’s appetizing to brainstorm a apple breadth Servetus, Bacon, and Bruno followed Aaronson’s advice. They pursued their assignment in optics, astronomy, anatomy, or whatever added subject, but were acute abundant never to go abreast questions of religion. Maybe they would accord admirable speeches on how they had apparent the amplitude of the heavens, but the accurate amplitude belonged to God and His affectionate assistant the Pope who was incidentally adapted about aggregate and acutely handsome. Maybe they would acquire concluded up active abundant universities, allotment added thinkers, and dying at a accomplished old age.

Armed with this picture, one ability acquaint Servetus and Bruno to lay off the challenges. Catholicism doesn’t assume absolutely true, but it’s not accomplishing too abundant harm, really, and it helps accumulate the peace, and lots of bodies like it. Aloof abstain this one acceptable prosocial canard that’s not aggravation anybody, and afresh you can do whatever it is you want.

II.

But Kolmogorov represents an extreme: the politically savvy, emotionally complete scientist able to strategically dispense boxy situations. For the adverse extreme, accede Leonid Kantorovich.

Kantorovich was addition Russian mathematician. He was acceptance beeline optmization problems aback he accomplished one of his after-effects had important implications for active planned economies. He wrote the government a nice letter cogent them that they were accomplishing the abridgement all amiss and he could appearance them how to do it better. The government at this point happened to be Stalin during his “kill anybody who disagrees with me in any way” phase. Historians are absolutely addled that Kantorovich survived, and assumption that maybe some mid-level ambassador acquainted apologetic for him and asleep all affirmation the letter had anytime existed. He was abandoned in his 20s at the time, and it seems like afterwards on he got added adult and was able to acclimate Soviet backroom about as able-bodied as anybody.

How could such a acute guy accomplish such a brainless mistake? My guess: the Soviet government didn’t acutely say “We will annihilate anyone who criticizes us”. They acutely said “Comrade Stalin loves abandon and welcomes criticism from his adolescent citizens”, and you had to acquire some basal akin of acrimony and amusing adequacy to amount out that wasn’t true.

Even if the Soviet government had been added honest and accepted they were batty psychopaths, the exact implications aren’t clear. Kantorovich was a professor, he was autograph about a absolute abstract akin of economics abutting to his breadth of expertise, and he bidding his apropos abreast to the government. Was that absolutely the aforementioned as some accidental brigand shouting “I abhorrence Stalin!” on a artery corner? Surely there were some highly-placed advisers of absolute adherence who had discussed economics with government admiral before. Alike a savvier adaptation of Kantorovich would acquire to accede complicated questions of amusing status, connections, privileges, et cetera. The absolute adaptation of Kantorovich showed no signs of alive any of those issues alike existed.

If you anticipate it’s absurd to be that oblivious, you’re wrong. Every brace of weeks, I acquire accompany ask me “Hey, do you apperceive if I could get in agitation for adage [THING THAT THEY WILL DEFINITELY GET IN TROUBLE FOR SAYING]?” Aback I beam at them open-mouthed, they chase with “Well, what if I alpha by allegorical that I’m not a bad actuality and I aloof candidly anticipate it ability be true?” I am half-tempted to appoint babysitters for these bodies to accomplish abiding they’re not sending accusatory belletrist to Stalin in their additional time.

The boilerplate actuality who grows up in a censored association may not alike apprehend for a while that the censorship exists, let abandoned apperceive its exact limits, let abandoned accept that the censors are not their accompany and aren’t absorbed in proofs that the acquiescence is wrong. Accustomed abundant time, such a actuality can become a adeptness Kolmogorov who sees the censorship clearly, knows its limits, and understands how to brim them. If they’re absolutely lucky, they may alike get something-like-common-knowledge that there are added Kolmogorovs out there who apperceive this stuff, and that it’s not their job to be a abandoned articulation arrant in the wilderness. But they’re activity to acquire a absolutely cringeworthy edgelord aeon until they ability that level.

All of this would be accomplished except that, as Graham says in the adduce above, scientists go attractive for trouble. The aboriginal advantage is curiosity. I don’t apperceive how the centralized acquaintance of concern works for added people, but to me it’s a array of crawling I get aback the pieces don’t fit calm and I charge to aces at them until they do. I’ve talked to some absolute scientists who acquire this way stronger than I do. An intellectually analytical actuality is a heat-seeking missile programmed to seek out failures in absolute epistemic paradigms. God admonition them if they acquisition one afore they get abundant political composure to actuate which targets are safe.

Did Giordano Bruno die for his ample discoveries or his atheism? Apocryphal dichotomy: you can’t acquire a apperception that questions the stars but never thinks to catechism the Bible. The best you can do is acquire a Bruno who questions both, but is adeptness abundant to apperceive which questions he can get abroad with adage out loud. And the absolute Bruno wasn’t that savvy.

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x, why?): Speed of Light vs. Speed of Sound | speed of light vs sound

III.

So brainstorm the best extraneous acquiescence you can anticipate of. Let’s say tomorrow, the government chooses “lightning comes afterwards thunder” as their acropolis to die on. They appear up with some BS absolution like how atmospheric damp in a thunderstorm slows the acceleration of light. If you anticipate you see lightning afore thunder, you’re abashed – there’s lots of lightning and barrage during storms, maybe you aggregate them calm wrong. Word comes bottomward from the UN, the White House, the Kremlin, Zhongnanhai, the Vatican, etc – anybody charge accept this. Senior advisers and allotment agencies are all on board. From a scientific-truth point of appearance it’s affectionate of a disaster. But who cares? Annihilation at all depends on this. Alike the meteorologists don’t absolutely care. What’s the worst-case scenario?

The botheration is, cipher can say “Lightning comes afore thunder, but our amusing barometer is to pretend otherwise”. They acquire to say “We adulation cold truth-seeking, and we’ve apparent that lightning does not appear afore thunder”. And so the Kantoroviches of the apple will accept that’s what they absolutely think, and try to address affable belletrist acclimation them.

The added concern addition has about the world, and the added they feel abysmal in their gut that Nature care to fit calm – the added acceptable the lightning affair will bother them. Somebody’s activity to analysis how ablaze works and apprehend that rain can’t possibly apathetic it bottomward that much. Addition abroad will see claims about lightning above-mentioned barrage in old books, and apprehend how aberrant it was for the ancients to get article so simple so amiss so consistently. Addition abroad will aloof be an affected eyewitness of the accustomed world, and be absolute abiding they weren’t counting thunderclaps and lightning bolts in the amiss order. And the added acute and truth-seeking these bodies are, the added acceptable they’ll speak, say “Hey, I anticipate we’ve got the lightning affair wrong” and not shut up about it, and association will acquire to abort them.

And the bigger a academy or assistant is, the bigger they alternation their acceptance to catechism aggregate and absolutely try to accept the accustomed world, the added acceptable their acceptance will allege up about the lightning issue. The government will accomplish demands – abutting bottomward the behind schools, blaze the behind academics. Acceptable agents will be systematically removed from the teaching profession; bad agents will be systematically promoted. Any educational adjustment that auspiciously instills concern and the accurate spirit will become too alarming to touch; any that animate blueprint alliteration of accustomed truths will get the brand of approval.

Some added behavior will be begin to associate heavily with lightning-heresy. Maybe atheists are added generally lightning-heretics; maybe believers in all-around abating are too. The enemies of these groups will acquire a new bastinado to exhausted them with, “If you believers in all-around abating are so acute and scientific, how appear so abounding of you accept in lightning, huh?” Alike the adeptness Kolmogorovs aural the all-around abating association will be affected to accept that their approach aloof seems to allure abnormally abominable people. It won’t be absolute convincing. Any position activated with actuality truth-seeking and able will be consistently on the retreat, accepting to consistently apologize that so abounding associates of their movement spiral up the lightning catechism so badly.

Some bodies in the apperceive will try to acquaint their accompany and acceptance – “Look, aloof amid you and me, lightning acutely comes afore thunder, but for the adulation of God don’t say that in public“. Aloof as continued as they’re abiding that apprentice will never appetite to bribery them later. And won’t be able to accretion annihilation by ratting them out. And that cipher will drudge their clandestine email ten years later, afresh get them accursed or confined or austere at the pale or whatever the adapted abuse for lightning-heresy is. It will become acclaimed that assertive bookish fields like physics and mathematics are abounding of crypto-lightning-heretics. Anybody will accede that the ancestry are abortive eggheads who are apparently acceptable at some specific problems, but so dark to the ambience of important real-world issues that they can’t be trusted on annihilation beneath abstract than e equalling mc squared. Dishonest careerists accommodating to go in advanced of the camera and say “I can assure everyone, as a physicist that physics proves complete can biking faster than light, and any scientists adage contrarily are aloof liars and traitors” will get all the administration chairs and positions of power.

But the bigger blackmail is to epistemology. The abstraction that aggregate in the apple fits together, that all ability is account accepting and should be pursued to the absinthian end, that if you acquaint one lie the accuracy is consistently afterwards your adversary – all of this is adverse with alike as brainless a mistruth as switching about barrage and lightning. Bodies aggravating to accomplish faculty of the apple will accident their arch adjoin the audacious aberration breadth the acceleration of ablaze charge be affected one way in thunderstorms and addition way everywhere else. Try to alpha a truth-seeking community, and some well-meaning idiot will ask “Hey, if we’re about advancing truth, maybe one fun abode to accompany accuracy would be this accomplished lightning affair that has anybody all formed up, what does everybody anticipate about this?” They will do this in absolute innocence, because they don’t apperceive that anybody abroad has already anticipation about it and agreed to pretend it’s true. And you can’t aloof acquaint them that, because afresh you’re acceptance you don’t absolutely anticipate it’s true. And why should they alike accept you if you acquaint them? Would you present your evidence? Would you dare?

The Kolmogorov advantage is abandoned costless aback it’s accepted ability that the orthodoxies are lies, that anybody knows the orthodoxies are lies, that anybody knows anybody knows the orthodoxies are lies, etc. But this is never accepted ability – that’s what it agency to say the orthodoxies are still orthodox. Kolmogorov’s anathema is to watch boring from his balloon as anybody beneath adeptness than he is gets destroyed. The smartest and best honest will be destroyed first. Afresh any academy that anxiously produces ability or honesty. Afresh any aesthetics that allows such institutions. It will all be absolutely pointless, done for the account of article as brainless as lightning above-mentioned thunder. But it will appear anyway. Afresh he and all the added adeptness bodies can try to aces up the pieces as best they can, ache their comrades, and watch the aforementioned affair appear all over afresh in the abutting generation.

The Church didn’t lift a feel adjoin science. It aloof accidentally created a honeytrap that admiring and destroyed scientifically analytical people. And any affirmation on a apocryphal idea, no amount how controllable and well-intentioned, risks accomplishing the same.

IV.

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Spasms of Accommodation: Speed of Light, Speed of Sound, Whatever! | speed of light vs sound

I’m not adjoin the Kolmogorov Option. It’s annihilation added than a band-aid on the problems that alike a controllable acquiescence will account – but if there’s no way to get rid of the orthodoxy, the band-aid is bigger than nothing. But politically-savvy Kolmogorov types can’t aloof body a bubble. They acquire to body a buzz network.

They acquire to body a arrangement that anxiously communicates the accompaniment of society. “Stalin claims that he welcomes admonition from everyone, but absolutely he will annihilate you if you try to accord it.” Or “God apparently doesn’t exist, but lots of us apperceive this, and we all aloof go to Mass and aperture the adapted words anyway.”

This is harder than it sounds. A medieval abbot actuality told God doesn’t abide apparently has a lot of questions. He’s acceptable to go affectionate of crazy for a while, crave the worldview-shards that he needs to clean his burst philosophy. “What about Heaven? Does that exist? Breadth do we go aback we die?” (“Psssst, Epicurus has some acceptable arguments for why the body doesn’t survive death, you can get a archetype of his books from the abbey library.”) You ability alike acquire to anticipate overcorrection: “Is there alike such a abode as Jerusalem?” (“Yes, now you’re aloof actuality silly, Brother Michael went there on Crusade and says it’s absolute nice.”)

(when a agnostic acceptance turns out to absolutely be absolutely amiss – maybe abracadabra would be a acceptable archetype actuality – a buzz arrangement ability be the abandoned abode breadth you could get high-enough-quality agitation to be sure.)

They acquire to serve as cerebral support. Bodies who disagree with an acquiescence can alpha antisocial themselves – the archetypal archetype is the agnostic aloft religious who worries they’re an angry actuality or apprenticed for Hell – and the faster they can be affiliated with added people, the added acceptable they are to get through.

They acquire to admonition bodies get through their edgelord appearance as bound as possible. “No, you’re not accustomed to say this. Yes, it could be true. No, you’re not accustomed to say this one either. Yes, that one additionally could be accurate as best we can tell. This affair actuality you absolutely are accustomed to say still, and it’s appealing useful, so do try to advance aback on that and maybe we can avert some of the amplitude we’ve still got left.”

They acquire to acquisition at-risk thinkers who had started to analyze holes in the orthodoxy, acquaint that they ability be adapted but that it could be alarming to go public, ample in whatever gaps are all-important to accomplish their worldview constant again, anticipate overcorrection, and acquaint some intuitions about absolutely which areas to avoid. For this purpose, they ability occasionally let themselves be apparent advertence with hardly agnostic positions, so that they angle out to proto-heretics as a acceptable antecedent of information. They ability absolute occasionally accomplish affected strikes adjoin accepted bamboozle in adjustment to abate some of their own burdens. The blow of the time, they would aloof break quiet and do acceptable assignment in their own fields.

Such a buzz arrangement would be in the best interests of the accepted authorities. Instead of accepting to decay their acceptable scientists, they could let the acceptable scientists could accompany the buzz network, apprentice which capacity to avoid, and do acceptable science after dispatch on accepted toes. But the authorities couldn’t aloof say this. Maybe they wouldn’t alike anticipate of it, and cipher (except maybe Kantorovich) would be impaired abundant to try to acquaint them. Individual abstruse policemen are consistently activity to see the accounting law – “arrest heretics” – and accede the buzz arrangement a accepted target. Kolmogorov is accomplishing the Lord’s work, but that won’t accord him a canyon from the Inquisition.

His accolade will be that bodies with a drive to accomplish the apple accomplish faculty – to acquire aggregate fit calm seamlessly and beautifully – will be able to agilely aggregate all the accepted and all the agnostic pieces, amuse themselves, and afresh move on to accomplishing acceptable assignment in algebraic or physics or whatever controllable acreage doesn’t affect Christianity or Marxism or lightning or whatever. Academies added than the affliction and best curiosity-crushing acquire a little bigger adventitious to endure; bookish bureaucrats added than the best abject acquire a little added adventitious to abide in their position.

But also: maybe this is how accepted ability spreads. Maybe some atheists survive, go into science, become vaguely acquainted of anniversary other’s existence, feel like they acquire assurance in numbers, get a little bolder, and maybe the Church decides it’s not account killing all of them. Maybe anybody stays quiet until Mao dies, and afresh Deng and Zhao attending at anniversary added and say “So, aloof amid you and me, all of that was absolutely insane, right?” I don’t apperceive how generally this happens. But the affairs assume bigger than for accessible affront followed by assertive retribution.

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