Monday, September 15, 2008

Large Hardon Collider, Theory of Everything and 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text

One day I asked George Smoot, a Nobel laureate physicist, if he thinks our most basic questions will ever be answered.
"It depends on how I'm feeling on any particular day," he said. "But every day I go to work I'm making a bet that the universe is simple, symmetric, and aesthetically pleasing—a universe that we humans, with our limited perspective, will someday understand."


I am going to go very far out on a limb and say the answer is no. By attempting to answer the most basic questions regarding the universe, physicists are attempting to bring order out of chaos. However, the second law of thermodynamics dictates that entropy (disorder, or chaos) must always increase. So by attempting to make the universe seem more understandable (i.e., simple, symmetric, and aesthetically pleasing) they are actually making it more seem more complicated (i.e., random and chaotic).

Related thoughts here: http://ofinterest2.blogspot.com/2008/09/richard-dawkins.html