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New World Reader Volume 1 Issue 4
The New World Reader
An Electronic Magazine of Future, Fiction, and the Human Condition
March 1995
Vol. 1 * No. 4
Contents-
From the Editor: A New Liaison for NWR
Communications: Reader Robbed
Feature Article: ÒThe Immutable World of ReligionÓ by Danford Austin Hall
Scientific Currents: EinsteinÕs General Theory, The Top Quark
Have you noticed..?
Books:
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From the Editor: NWR Welcomes The Diagnostic Society
The staff here at NWR is proud to announce a merger with The Diagnostic Society. This will mean the addition two new sections to the monthly line-up: Short Story and Diagnostic Commentary. These sections will be added whenever short stories and corresponding commentaries are available. So let this serve as an announcement that NWR will be accepting fiction submissions, but read on--there are some guidelines.
For those not familiar with The Diagnostic Society (TDS), I will offer a brief history of its organization and purpose. Thomas Newland formed TDS in September of 1994 at Louisiana State University. The membership of the charter group meets biweekly to discuss books and ideas. The discussions aim to arrive at some understanding of humanity (human nature) as seen through the magnifying glass of fiction. The inspiration for this mission is an essay by Walker Percy entitled ÒPhysician as NovelistÓ which can be found in the collection of Percy essays called _Signposts in a Strange Land_ (The Noonday Press, 1992). In this essay, Percy describes the novelistÕs job as Òthat of a diagnostician. A diagnostician is a person who stands toward another person in the relation of one who knows that something has gone wrong with the other.Ó The novelistÕs job is to Òput his finger on the peculiar lesion of the age.Ó So the in the meetings of TDS, they read novels and short stories using them as an opportunity to explore the modern human condition. This is pretty broad and it is intended to be.
When I discussed the possibility of combining TDS with NWR, Tom admitted that the idea fit in rather well with what he saw TDS ultimately becoming--a forum where original fiction written by the membership would be presented and discussed. NWR will serve as a more public forum for the presentation of fiction and its thoughtful consideration.
How does this complement NWR? As stated in the first issue of NWR last November, the mission of this electronic magazine is to look to the future and see if we canÕt determine where the human race is headed. This future-gazing is done in the service of self examination inasmuch as our concept of the future forms who we are in the present. NWR seeks to understand the human condition with respect to our natural individual and sociological development through careful analysis of developments in science, philosophy, politics, etc. TDS aims at the same thing except by employing a different method through careful analysis of fiction.
NWR would be very happy to entertain short fiction pieces which illuminate some aspect of the human condition. Please contact us at our NEWORLDR@aol.com e-mail address if you have a short story you would like to contribute. Given the format of NWR short stories will need to be limited to less than 5000 words.
Notice that we have a new address for subscription requests SubNWR@aol.com. Please direct your requests for a free e-mail subscription of NWR to this address. This will aid us in sorting our submissions from subscriptions.
In this issue, we are pleased to present a look at the development (or lack thereof) of religion and a glimpse into our possible religious future. Together with an examination of how religion has affected human nature, Danford Austin Hall offers some humorous and frightening views of the state of what the human religious condition might be in the twenty-first century.
Trevor Austin, Editor of NWR
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Communications
HOLES IN CRATER COVERAGE
Mr. Austin:
I've enjoyed the material so far that the NWR has flung across the wires at me. On most levels, you are reasonably close to the standards you have set yourself. So it came as a bit of shock to find a rather large _hole_ in your review of Herbert Shaw's model of crater placement. Perhaps it is common knowledge, but I've no idea what the pattern is for craters on our own orb. Does debris from space all land naturally in W.Texas, Arizona, or the Australian outback?
My comments above may only highlight my own scientific ignorance, but that brings up another point. In some areas, Mr. Trevor, I'm counting on you to keep me informed, to filter out the trivial and erring. In reviews, therefore, I would like to see opinions along with survey. Do you buy Shaw's model? Does the scientific community? Enquiring minds want to know (and so do I).
Thanks for the effort so far.
David Branson
AUSTIN ANSWERS
The distribution of craters is roughly two interlocking circles both of which contain the north pole inside their perimeter.
To answer your questions: I think that ShawÕs model is a creative application of non-linear dynamics to explain ÒpatternsÓ in the global crater distribution. Whether the circular crater distribution which Shaw has uncovered is the result of a physical chaotic attractor or an active imagination I am not sure. Shaw has set up a theory where experimental verification of its basic assertions would be hazardous to well-being of life on the Earth. What I find most interesting about ShawÕs theory is the formative effects of the asteroid and comet impacts on the geophysical development of the Earth. For a partial explanation of this see the Science News article I referred to last issue (28 Jan 95 p. 58).
As for the geophysical community buying into ShawÕs ideas, I donÕt think you would describe their reception as warm and welcome. Shaw is a bit of an outcast it seems. If I may quote Ralph H. Abraham from the Science News article to illustrate this point: ÒThey [ShawÕs ideas] were rejected, vilified. ItÕs expensive to be a pioneer, to be a heretic.Ó
The scientific community is a careful, cautious body unwilling to throw itself headlong into the acceptance of a new theory. This cautiousness is a good thing because more bad theories are proposed than good ones. Bad theories are easier to invent than good ones. It is also very easy to look at nature (or anything) and see whatever one wishes to see. You will see below in the Scientific Currents section that these considerations come up in the context of a new criticism of EinsteinÕs general theory of relativity.
ShawÕs 600+ paged book is being published this month by Stanford University Press. If anyone would care to review it, our book review section is starving.
\\\ Send your comments, complaints, insights, etc. to NEWORLDR@aol.com ///
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The Immutable World of Religion
by DANFORD AUSTIN HALL
*Danford Austin Hall is an assistant professor of communication at Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX.
Solomon (possibly), circa 977 B.C.E (possibly) said, ÒThe thing that hath been it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.Ó (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
One of the attributes ascribed to God is immutability; nevertheless, this Unchanging Deity has endowed human creatures the prerogative of change by extending to humanity the gift of free will. While it is comforting to believe in the rock solidness of an Unmoved Mover, we can take little solace in our application of free will to improve the condition of humanity. First, letÕs consider the goal of religion as adumbrated in the Judeo-Christian tradition and consider if any real change has taken place; then, secondly, letÕs attempt to chart the course of religious belief and practice as we move into the 21st century.
The essence of religion as presented in the two testaments of the Bible is right relationships: humans are enjoined to Òlove God and to love their neighbors as themselves.Ó With this central teaching in mind, the question needs to be asked, ÒHas humanity made any significant changes in the period of recorded history that would show positive growth in the fulfillment of this basic religious teaching?Ó Sadly, we would have to concur with Solomon that Òthere is no new thing under the sun.Ó Humans and their nature have not changed according to the records that have been handed down to us. Scripturally, the history of murder begins when Cain kills his brother Abel; moreover, this homicidal bent has been honed until nations can kill other nations. Someone might argue that weapons of mass destruction are a mark of significant change in human history; however, murder is murder whether it is done to oneÕs literal sibling using oneÕs hands as weapons or whether it is committed by people under orders from a madman, like Hitler, using the latest, most sophisticated weaponry. (Could we move a bit closer to our own culture and ask, ÒWas it murder when President Bush slaughtered thousands of Iraqi children simply because his bumbling foreign policy had created the conditions which made another madman think he could invade Kuwait without any response by the nations of the world?Ó) In the area of human relations we can see that humans have not changed: We are as murderous, contentious, and strife-prone as we have ever been; furthermore, we are able through the use of technology to be more efficient in our carrying out of these malicious actions.
The second injunction given in the Older Testament is that humans are to love God and, here again, we see no change from the past: Humans have gone from belief in God, to belief in the divinity of humans, to the belief in nothing. Solomon had himself evolved through all of these phases, so he represents the past, present, and future of faith.
Loving God and believing in GodÕs existence have taken some interesting forms over the centuries; however, none of the variations represents a significant change in religious belief. Several years back people were distressed when some theologians announced, ÒGod is dead.Ó But that statement is no change from basic atheism, since whether God never existed or somehow died can hardly be represented as significant progress in our thinking about God.
Another variation that Solomon witnessed was the deifying of humans, which his nation did by the elevation of one of their own to the role of monarch. The Romans repeated this false worship of their rulers as divine; moreover, in our time such mortals as Elvis and Jim Morrison have been accorded divinity.
This deification of humanity can also be seen in our contemporary American cultureÕs fixation on the self, particularly the physical self, as the god to be worshipped. The worldview of these self-idolaters is a narcissus-like image of their own bodies.
Will America move on to belief in nothing? No, Americans will always believe in some myth greater than themselves. The religious myths of the 21st century will probably evolve into bizarre areas: The Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Jan. 21, 1995, p. B6) reported that currently nine ÒCowboyÓ churches are operating in the U.S. The country and western theme is stressed to the point of main importance. Everything about these churches centers around the cowboy/country-western theme. One of the ministers even admits, ÒOne time I talked about the book of Psalms, which mentions the musicians at Garth. You get it? Garth Brooks, the country singer.Ó
If I were given to prognostication, based on the above example of ÒCowboy Churches,Ó I would suggest the following possibilities:
1. Science Fiction lovers will probably move beyond the church originally founded for them (Church of Scientology) and develop churches for any or all of the popular television or movie science fiction series now extant or waiting to be popularized.
2. Good baseball fans will rally around St. Nolan Ryan, while those driven by the dark side will align with St. Peter, Pete Rose, that is.
3. Since we already have churches devoted to Elvis and Jim Morrison, I would think that other musicians or types of music will gain converts: GangstaÕ Rap will evolve into GospaÕ Rap.
The 21st century will not usher in the age of no belief; it will be the dawn of faith in anything or anyone. Faith will be cheap and easy. This fact is apparent right now: Is it easier for you to believe that Elvis lives or that Jesus lives?
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Scientific Currents
WAS EINSTEIN RIGHT?
Last year a researcher of the Electro-Optics Technology Center at Tufts University, Huseyin Yilmaz, made the amazing claim that EinsteinÕs general theory of relativity fails to yield solutions where two finite bodies attract each other. For those of you not familiar with general relativity--the theory exploits the equivalence of inertial mass and gravitational mass to recast gravitation as curvature in spacetime. Massive objects curve spacetime more than lighter objects. The apparent attraction between two or more objects is explained as the tendency for each object to travel in straight lines on the curved spacetime--because of the curvature, a locally straight path could actually be globally a circle. Just think of an ant traveling in a straight line on the interior of a cylinder; the ant may think she is going straight ahead, but it is clear that she is bound to a circular or even helical path. EinsteinÕs interpretation of gravity differs from that of NewtonÕs--gravity is not a force at all, but rather just a peculiarity of the curvature of spacetime.
Obviously, if the general theory of relativity is meant to be a proper gravitational theory then one would expect it to produce solutions where finite objects were attracted to each other--apples should fall to the ground. Yilmaz and a colleague, Carroll O. Alley of the University of Maryland, have devised a new theory which they assert does not fail to produce the desired attractive solutions. So either Yilmaz and Alley are dead wrong or something is wrong with EinsteinÕs general theory of relativity.
Some of you might be scratching your heads thinking that if Einstein got his sums wrong back in 1915 when he introduced the theory, someone should have caught it before now--eighty years later! Unfortunately, the situation is much more complicated than that. The general theory of relativity is a very complex mathematical theory which demands the simultaneous solution of ten interconnected field equations which relate the curvature of a four dimensional spacetime to a stress-energy tensor. The equations are so complicated to solve that it can be safely said that probably no one person has ever understood the true meaning of the whole of what the equations are trying to describe including Einstein.
My saying that these field equations are complicated to solve is not an excuse for why it is possible to still find errors in the theory after four generations of physicists have been working diligently at them. EinsteinÕs general theory has met with a great deal of success in explaining the phenomenon of gravitation; it has stood up against every experimental test thrown at it and each time it has survived intact.
Because of the success of EinsteinÕs theory and the fact that so many proposed corrections or alternatives to the theory have failed to be as useful, the physics community is quite skeptical of the claims made by Yilmaz and Alley; many physicists dismiss their ideas altogether. This seems to be an odd situation in a branch of science which should be free of peopleÕs *opinions* about whether a theory is good or useful. If Yilmaz and Alley have calculated and shown that EinsteinÕs theory is lacking, then how can anyone disregard their claims? This is where the gulf between calculation and understanding becomes clear. In physics it is not good enough just to calculate, to work mathematical problems; one must interpret the equations, find out what the equations are saying. The physicist must discover meaning in the mathematics. Yilmaz and Alley may have done their calculations correctly (they have been checked by other physicists), but their assertions remain in doubt because they may be dealing with an unphysical situation. The model investigated by Yilmas and Alley involves the attraction of very large, thin, flat sheets of material in close proximity. The flat sheets themselves are not intrinsically unphysical, but there may be unforseen problems with such sheets, e.g. how would they remain rigid? Regardless of the specifics of the problem, it is clear that assumptions are being made about reality and these assumptions may not reflect what is physically possible. In short, their problem may be artificial in the sense that it could never happen in the real universe. Big deal if EinsteinÕs equations fail to give attractive solutions to an unphysical situation! As long as the equations yield good answers to physical situations, then EinsteinÕs theory holds.
My point here is not to decide whether Einstein or Yilmaz and Alley have the correct theory, but rather to clarify for those who are not in the sciences that just because theories are constantly being modified, improved, and even replaced, it does not necessarily follow that science is constantly changing its mind as new sociologically-dependent paradigms are introduced. Controversies and problems with theories such as general relativity and quantum mechanics have given fuel to the bonfire of accusations hurled against science that it is not attaining objective (and by implication, irrefutable) knowledge of what is really real. Science is rooted in a tradition which contains myriad ideas about the physical universe. As scientists learn more about the universe, their understanding of it will improve and theories which embody this understanding must change and grow or be replaced by better theories. The fact that theories are born and eventually die is not a testament to the vanity of the scientific pursuit, but evidence that science is probing more deeply the mysteries of reality and understanding them more completely. [See Science News, 3 December 1994 pp. 376-8] --T. Austin
THE LAST QUARK
ItÕs official! The existence of the top quark has been announced confidently. Previous tentative announcements about the possibility of the top quark having been observed have been replaced by a definative claim to having observed this heretofore elusive particle. The CDF and D0 collaborations at Fermilab made this announcement jointly, each giving its results and estimations of the top quark mass. This announcement comes after a great deal of analysis of data taken on millions of collision events. Both collaborations are certain of their results and assert that there is only a one in a million chance that what they observed was due to some spurious background events. [See Physics New Update #216, 3 March 1995]
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Have you noticed...?
This is a new section primarily for the physicists who read NWR. Below you will find titles and authors for some interesting journal articles noticed by the editorial staff. In the future we will be including some reviews of the most interesting articles in a new Journal Review section which will start next month. Also, if you have anything that you ran across and would like us to list it please send it along to NEWORLDR@aol.com. We encourage you to send any reviews of journal articles that are of special interest to you. This section is not restricted to physics articles or reviews. This monthÕs list simply reflects the interests of the editors: which are superconductivity, foundations of quantum mechanics, relativity (special and general), cosmology (quantum and other), etc. Let us know how this section could be made more useful.
-----European Journal of Physics.-----
1995 v 16 n 1
*Rothenstein, B.; & Balan, S. "Special relativity without clock synchronization." Page: 31
-----Physics Reports.-----
JAN 01 1995 v 251 n 3 / 4
*Brenig, Wolfram. "Aspects of Electron Correlations in The Cuprate Superconductors."
-----Physical Review Letters.-----
FEB 13 1995 v 74 n 7
*Burko, Lior M.; & Ori, Amos. "Are Physical Objects Necessarily Burnt Up by the Blue Sheet inside a Black Hole?" Page: 1064
*Dando, P.A.; Monteiro, T.S.; & Taylor, K.T." Beyond Periodic Orbits: An Example in Nonhydrogenic Atoms." Page: 1099
FEB 20 1995 v 74 n 8
*Hinde, D.J.; Dasgupta, M.; & Timmers, H. "Fusion-Fission versus Quasifission: Effect of Nuclear Orientation." Page: 1295
*Castellani, C.; & Grilli, M. "Comment on 'Effects of Strong Coulomb Correlations on the Phonon-Mediated Superconductivity: A Model Inspired by Copper Oxides'." Page: 1488
*Yudson, V.I. "Lateral Magnetization of Mesoscopic Metal Rings and Cylinders Threaded by a Magnetic Flux." Page: 1407
*Kawaji, Hitoshi; Horie, Hiro-omi; & Ishikawa, Mitsuo. "Superconductivity in the Silicon Clathrate Compound (Na,Ba)xSi46." Page: 1427
*Roddick, Eric; & Stroud, David. "Effect of Phase Fluctuations on the Low-Temperature Penetration Depth of High-Tc Superconductors." Page: 1430
-----Superconductor Science & Technology.-----
FEB 01 1995 v 8 n 2
*Reddy, R. Ravinder; Muralidhar, M.; & Reddy, P. Venugopal. "The relationship between the porosity and elastic moduli of the Bi-Pb-2212 high-Tc superconductor." Page: 101
-----Physics Letters A.-----
FEB 06 1995 v 197 n 5 / 6
*Dieks, D. "Physical motivation of the modal interpretation of quantum mechanics." Page: 367
*Vignale, G.; & Mashhoon, B. "Persistent current in a rotating mesoscopic ring." Page: 444
*Nam, S.B. "Pairing theory of high Tc and low Tc superconductors." Page: 458
FEB 13 1995 v 198 n 1
*Kernaghan, M.; & Peres, A. "Kochen-Specker theorem for eight-dimensional space." Page: 1
FEB 20 1995 v 198 n 2
*Mikhailovskii, A.B. "Toroidal plasma rotation in a rippled tokamak." Page: 131
*Angelucci, A.; Sorella, S.; & Poilblanc, D. "Large physical spin approach for strongly correlated electrons." Page: 145
FEB 27 1995 v 198 n 3
*Capelle, K.; & Gross, E.K.U. "Relativistic theory of superconductivity." Page: 261
-----Physical Review B: Condensed matter.-----
JAN 15 1995 v 51 n 4
*Andreoni, Wanda; Giannozzi, Paolo; & Parrinello, Michele. "Molecular structure and chemical bonding in K3C60 and K6C60." Page: 2087
FEB 01 1995 v 51 n 6
*Tralshawala, N.; Zasadzinski, J.F.; & Gray, K.E. "Tunneling, alpha2F(omega), and transport in superconductors: Nb, V, VN, Ba1-xKxBiO3, and Nd1.85Ce1.15CuO4." Page: 3812
*Song, Jinsuk; & Annett, James F. "Electron-phonon coupling and d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates." Page: 3840
*Lee, J.D.; Kang, Kicheon; & Min, B.I. "Correlation-enhanced electron-phonon interaction in a strongly correlated electron system." Page: 3850
*Varelogiannis, Georgios. "Superconducting critical temperature for realistic couplings." Page: 3941
FEB 15 1995 v 51 n 7
*Appenzeller,J.; Schapers, Th.; & Luth, H. "Aharonov-Bohm effect in quasi-one-dimensional In0.77Ga0.23As/InP rings." Page: 4336
-----Physics of the Solid State.-----
JAN 01 1995 v 37 n 1
*Ktitorov, S.A.; & Shalaev, B.N. "Influence of lattice effects on the critical behavior of type-II superconductors in a magnetic field." Page: 94
-----Physica C. Superconductivity.-----
JAN 15 1995 v 241 n 3 / 4
*Stoppard, O.; & Gugan, D. "The low-field AC susceptibility of type-II superconducting thin films." Page: 375
FEB 01 1995 v 242 n 1 / 2
*Sutliff, J.A.; Specht, E.D.; & Goyal, A. "The effect of colonies of aligned grains on critical current in high-temperature superconductors." Page: 164
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Books
Send us your book reviews. We are soliciting reviews of Roger PenroseÕs _Shadows of the Mind_ and David Bohm and Basil HileyÕs _The Undivided Universe_.
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NEXT ISSUE: The Deification of Humanity
NWR Information
Subscriptions to NWR are free via e-mail. Send a note to SubNWR@AOL.COM requesting to be put on the mailing list. Also current and back issues of NWR are available via FTP, GOPHER, or WWW at FTP.ETEXT.ORG in the directory /pub/Zines/NewWorldReader.
Contributions should be sent electronically to NEWORLDR@AOL.COM. Essays and Scientific Currents should be 1000 words or less; book, journal reviews, and letters 500. Short stories up to 5000 words in length will be considered.
copyright, 1995 NWR
