• Damir Ibrisimovic
    129
    The Joke:
    Since Libet's findings started to trickle out,
    There was plenty of nonsense about our free will...
    What???!!! My free will is useless? I'll give it up...
    Now, how could I - give up something I did/do not have???
    ----
    Before I started it (22 May 2011), there were many forums discussing do we have or not have free will.
    After, the most of such forums abandoned the debate...

    What Happened?

    We were obviously missing majority of freely available evidence that enabled endless debates and we needed something to produce an "aha moment". In this case, my joke provided an "aha moment" in a humorous way...

    But this is not the only case:
    -----
    Dark Matter

    As we measured orbital speeds we noticed that stars on the fringes of our galaxy moving faster than the estimated mass of Milky Way permits. To resolve this the mysterious dark matter was proposed for additional mass. And now, we are spending millions trying to detect it - with no results. Furthermore, the dark matter is now considered as given without any doubt...

    In my opinion, we need to change how we observe/calculate waves of gravitational pulls... If gravity works in form of gravitational waves - then we can have resonances that increase gravitational pulls - and then we do not need dark matter...

    Similarly, we could resolve the even more mysterious "dark energy".
    -----
    Fine Structure "Constant" (alpha)

    Presently, there is a strong belief that physical laws are the same at all localities in the universe...

    And yet, the Fine Structure "Constant" varies all over the place. And with that, we have different laws of physic at different localities of the universe. Obviously, we need to radically change our understanding of the universe. (I do not have an "aha moment" for that.)
    -----

    There are many controversies in the science that need their own "aha moment". So, I open this thread to try to identify what in science needs an "aha moment".

    Hearty,:cool:
  • Forgottenticket
    212
    A couple of things, the first part seems similar to the argument that consciousness is epiphenomenal. Yet if it is without effects then how can we talk about it or have the introspection to talk about it.
    However in the context of the free will argument couldn't the person say the "I" was a useful fiction existing only for sociological reasons until a better one is found. I've spoke with eliminativists before and they believe something similar to this regarding propostional attitudes. If you read Paul and Pat Churchland's conversations you can see what they intend it to be replaced with.
    That may be the case with dark matter. It only exists to fill a current gap and may just be a useful fiction for that. The difference between them though is our intentions are experienced by us directly.
  • Damir Ibrisimovic
    129
    ... the first part seems similar to the argument that consciousness is epiphenomenal...JupiterJess

    I believe that you are referring to the joke. It's separated topic and you will find some of my answers there. So, please comment there... :)

    However in the context of the free will argument couldn't the person say the "I" was a useful fiction existing only for sociological reasons until a better one is found.JupiterJess

    Social context is important. But our free will is not limited to social context only...

    That may be the case with dark matter. It only exists to fill a current gap and may just be a useful fiction for that. The difference between them though is our intentions are experienced by us directly.JupiterJess

    You will need to explain that to the physicists. Presently they do not speak about dark matter as a plug to close a gap...

    I need a bit more to agree to disagree or agree on the existence of free will - without qualifiers...

    Hearty, :cool:
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