This post will eventually be about how two Anglican priests of the 18th and 19th centuries demolish one of the principle claims of the global warming alarmists, but it will take a while to get there.
Last night, I want to a lecture by Garrett Lisi at Maikalani. I was curious to see whether he is, indeed, the crackpot that some theoretical physicists say he is. He isn’t, although C.P. Snow would have had something to say about the overflow crowd he drew to the monthly lecture at the Institute for Astronomy. I saw lots of people there from East Maui who have never appeared for the more conventional lectures.
(Note to off-island readers: Most Maui institutions with “institute” in their titles are fringist, but the IfA is fo’ real: It’s the most prestigious part of the U. of Hawaii.)
Although I could not follow Lisi’s argument, it is clear enough what he is trying to do: He said he is trying, like Einstein, to geometrize the fundamental forces, of which gravity has been the most reluctant to be subsumed into a more inclusive description.
It goes back further than Einstein. Newton was attempting the same thing. Newton is always credited with inventing calculus, but it is not usually added that for him, calculus was a kludge, a way to hammer out results he was unable to get to geometrically. He worked on the Greek assumption that geometry was more pure or more fundamental than arithmetic.
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