Week Eight

Newton’s Three Laws and me

For me, the best way to understand the three laws is from C.P Snow. His examples are bottom line and easy to understand.
1) You cannot win. I fully believe that you cannot get something for nothing, even if it takes an eternity to for the “something” to kick in.
2) You cannot break even. This is a bit harder to understand. But, I look at it like gambling, if you start with $20 and after playing for a while you leave the table with $20 you did not break even because you basically got to “play” for a time. So, even though you started and ended with the same amount of money you used time, energy, and other facets that kept you from “breaking even.”
3) You cannot get out of the game. This is kind of like the chaos theory to me. Something will always be happening, even when nothing is.

Our “Energy Efficient” Culture

Energy efficient seems like an oxymoron.
Having said that we have to use energy in order to live (I know some would argue with me, but you would have to contend that everyone needs a little bit of energy to get by), the amount and way we use energy in our culture seems to be in a baby stage. Most people, unless they are living under a rock are aware that we need to save energy in our culture. Moreover, more and more people are “trying” to do so. The problem is that people are not doing their homework on what really saves energy in the long run.
People seem to want to jump on the save energy bandwagon and do something, which is commendable to a point. However, when you run out and buy a hybrid car simply because you see a celebrity driving one is not “doing your part.”
There is a lot of information out there on how to save on energy. If people do their homework and make conscious choices of what honestly will work in their lives, then we will be past the baby stages of being energy efficient and moving forward on actually saving energy.

Descartes has a lot to answer for
Does he? Wasn’t he just studying something to try and make further understanding of it just like most people do? It is said that a theory is just something we believe or live by until someone comes up with a better theory. If Descartes was working to understand and or improve reductionism I don’t see the problem. Maybe I just don’t get it!