Any David Bohm fans in here?

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Mike

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Message 1235563 - Posted: 23 May 2012, 19:59:58 UTC

I know he wrote on a wide variety of topics but I'm currently reading his views on the mechanistic philosophy of science. (was very surprised to see a foreword by The Dalai Lama). Thought it would be fun to find some folks to discuss it with.

Here's a little something to chew on. It's the mechanistic philosophy as Bohm defines it: "..the fundamental entities that are supposed to exist, the kinds of qualities that define the modes of being of these entities, and the general kinds of relationships in terms of which the basic laws are to be expressed, are supposed to fit into some fixed and limited physical and mathematical scheme, which could in principle be subjected to a complete and exhaustive formulation."

I can say from personal experience (have two engineering degrees) that a lot of people I've encountered adopt this view in that they see equations and instantly assume they are definite/immutable. They don't understand how much approximation is built into the formula. Put definite numbers in/get definite numbers out. But it seems like Bohm is almost more speaking to the scientists as much (more than?) as the man on the street.
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Message 1235658 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 2:30:15 UTC - in response to Message 1235563.  
Last modified: 24 May 2012, 2:33:17 UTC

I know one David Bohm who put forward a theory of "pilot waves" together with Louis de Broglie against the standard "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum mechanics by Niels Bohr and company. On Wikipedia, he was born in 1917 and died either in 1992 or 1994. His work was continued by prof. Mike Towler of Cambridge University and there was a BOINC project called QuantumFIRE alpha@home which pursued this line of research and then disappeared. Are we talking about the same person?
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Message 1235694 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 5:21:29 UTC - in response to Message 1235658.  

Yes. One in the same. I love how he was influential in theoretical physics AND philosophy. The realm of the quantum does lend itself to philosophy.
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Message 1235723 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 7:07:26 UTC - in response to Message 1235694.  
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See also E.S.Reich,"A boost for quantum reality", in "Nature", Vol.485, page 157, May 10 2012. I could read it but I am not sure I can link to it, "Nature" is very jealous of its texts.
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Message 1236031 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 18:33:34 UTC - in response to Message 1235723.  

I can get the article. I go to university, so I'm sure they have a copy in their stacks. I'll go ahead, look it up and get back to you on it. Thanks for the recommendation. Cheers!
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Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Any David Bohm fans in here?


 
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