Lipton’s Journal/January 24, 1955/224: Difference between revisions

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As a crude example, the total presence of building and structures in the world is an expression of society—it is part of the physical principles of society. In other words buildings do have a kind of life (and there is a basis, although of course inaccurate, in feeling ghosts in old houses). What I try to say is that a building is alive but it is not alive like animals or humans or even plants (I’m not at all sure of the last).  
As a crude example, the total presence of building and structures in the world is an expression of society—it is part of the physical principles of society. In other words buildings do have a kind of life (and there is a basis, although of course inaccurate, in feeling ghosts in old houses). What I try to say is that a building is alive but it is not alive like animals or humans or even plants (I’m not at all sure of the last).  


In other words there are two kinds of life-forms in the universe. Animal forms and socio-structural forms of life, and they war upon one another. As a more stimulating example, I would say that the laws of physics for example are not something static and to be discovered for all time piece by little piece, but that just as man and animals, both homeostatic, evolve, so too does physics evolve. The physical laws of today are not the same as the physical laws of five thousand years ago, for example, and certainly not the same as the physical laws of five million years ago. I will put it crudely. Five million years ago one plus one might have been equal to one. Five thousand years ago one plus one were equal to two. Today one plus one is equal to 4? But the answer is certainly not two, thanks to Einstein.  
In other words there are two kinds of life-forms in the universe. Animal forms and socio-structural forms of life, and they war upon one another. As a more stimulating example, I would say that the laws of physics for example are not something static and to be discovered for all time piece by little piece, but that just as man and animals, both homeostatic, evolve, ''so too does physics evolve''. The physical laws of today are not the same as the physical laws of five thousand years ago, for example, and certainly not the same as the physical laws of five million years ago. I will put it crudely. Five million years ago one plus one might have been equal to one. Five thousand years ago one plus one were equal to two. Today one plus one is equal to 4? But the answer is certainly not two, thanks to Einstein.  


What is present in this, and intellectually enthralling is that man, Life, wars against the sociostatic principles of society (Other-Life) and of physics too. Said otherwise, man is not merely a creature of the universe—his concerted creative expression of the life-force alters the universe even as the universe alters him. So that, philosophically, we may be coming upon a time when the circle will be closed, or rather the spiral rounded and man will again see himself as the center of the universe, rather than as the victim of the universe. Put as the Grand Theory of Relativity it comes out thus: As man discovers the universe, so he changes the very laws of its being. I suspect Planck’s Quantum theory{{refn|[[w:Max Planck|Planck]] (1858-1947) was a theoretical physicist who proposed that the energy of light is proportional to its frequency.}} would throw interesting lights on this if I knew anything about it. Also what Bob{{LJ:Lindner}} said about the nearness of the instruments to the experiment.
What is present in this, and intellectually enthralling is that man, Life, wars against the sociostatic principles of society (Other-Life) and of physics too. Said otherwise, man is not merely a creature of the universe—his concerted creative expression of the life-force alters the universe even as the universe alters him. So that, philosophically, we may be coming upon a time when the circle will be closed, or rather the spiral rounded and man will again see himself as the center of the universe, rather than as the victim of the universe. Put as the Grand Theory of Relativity it comes out thus: As man discovers the universe, so he changes the very laws of its being. I suspect Planck’s Quantum theory{{refn|[[w:Max Planck|Planck]] (1858-1947) was a theoretical physicist who proposed that the energy of light is proportional to its frequency.}} would throw interesting lights on this if I knew anything about it. Also what Bob{{LJ:Lindner}} said about the nearness of the instruments to the experiment.