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Author Topic:   What would happen if the ToE were disproven? (A suspense/thriller novel project)
subbie
Member (Idle past 1276 days)
Posts: 3509
Joined: 02-26-2006


Message 5 of 39 (526663)
09-28-2009 11:36 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by swalker2001
09-28-2009 10:55 PM


Your problem is going to be that you can't just poof the ToE out of existence. If you look at the recent history of scientific development, you will see that change comes through what is called a paradigm shift. Read Thomas Kuhn for a fuller explanation.
The ToE can in theory be supplanted by a superior theory. But any such supplantation will not negate the established things that the ToE has done and has enabled scientists to do. Think of relativity. It replaced Newtonian mechanics, but Newtonian mechanics still does all the things that physicists were able to do with it before relativity. Or, even further back, think of the Copernican revolution. Before the heliocentric model replaced the geocentric, people used stars and planets for navigation. People are still able to use stars and planets for navigation, and the process is basically unchanged despite our rejection of the theory it was based on.
You cannot simply toss out a few revolutionary discoveries and then proceed as if the ToE never existed, or as if it didn't accurately describe the world and how it works at some level. What you need to do is create a particular problem that the ToE is unable to solve and supplant it with a new theory that includes everything that the ToE covers, but explains the new findings as well.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. -- Thomas Jefferson
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers. -- Barack Obama
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by swalker2001, posted 09-28-2009 10:55 PM swalker2001 has replied

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