Freedom of Science

Some thoughts on the mission of the Freedom of Science blog. What is Newtonism? Can it be toppled? Does it need to be?

Also available here in wiki format.

The best case scenario

In the best case scenario

• scientific authority is transferred to the people
• Newtonism is exposed as religion
• Kepler’s rule is recognized as fundamental
• Newtonian occult is removed from science

When these things will happen Freedom of Science blog would have achieved its goal.

How to make the best case scenario a reality

There is only one way — and only one — to effect this change. The end of Newtonism will come when its end will be announced to the world on the front page of the New York Times.

Prediction:

• Newtonism will expire when the Big Media will decide that it no longer needs it.

If it is too ambitious to seek a place on the hallowed columns of the Times let’s settle for a cover story in the New Scientist. That’s actually very easy to achieve if we can put together a good marketing campaign. So let’s look at what we need.

A marketing strategy to topple Newtonism

We need:

• A charismatic front man or woman
• A theory with a super catchy title with several layers of good puns to tickle the editors of New Scientist into action
• Totally irrelevant but sufficiently complex and deep mathematical symbolism named after a dead white male and associated with the theory via the title
• One super duper eye catching and colorful graphic for the cover of the New Scientist supposedly making visible the mysterious inner workings of the theory
• A blog and a Wiki where the theory will be discussed in depth
• Press release sent to the editors of the dead tree media around the globe
• A paper with the same title as the press release placed into the arxiv.org with the claim that the peer reviewed publication is pending
• A literary agent with enough clout to extract a blurb from Lee Smolin or some such authority declaring the theory the next big thing for this week’s cover
• A book in progress.¹

If you carefully follow this marketing campaign fame and success is guaranteed. (What about toppling Newtonism? See below.)

The importance of charisma in physics

Now let’s look at the most important element of this campaign: the charismatic author.

In earlier times in the history of academic scholasticism an author of an important physics theory had to be a PhD affiliated with a major university. But thanks to Garrett Lisi now the process is open to all. Today charisma is the only important qualification to float a successful theory of everything.

Definition of charisma:

• Charisma is the ability to manipulate the media to project the image you want your audience to perceive you the way you want it.

I don’t have charisma and I don’t project arrogant doctoral authority and therefore no editor of the New Scientist will take my theory of everything seriously. Ditto for the readers of the New Scientist and such magazines. Consumers do not trust people without charisma.

But there is a more serious problem: I don’t have a theory of everything.

My research is not about discovering the philosophers stone, the old name of the theory of everything. As their professional titles indicate only Doctors of Philosophy dedicate their careers to chasing that most elusive thing called philosophers stone. After all they invented the notion.

What if Doctors of Philosophy cannot find the true philosophers stone? No worries. They have the authority to define whatever they want so they take any stone and brand it as the true and genuine philosopher stone candidate and float it in the scholastic marketplace.
 
I, on the other hand, believe that the root cause of all the world’s evil is the Newtonian religion! Newtonian religion is an invention of the very same Doctors of Philosophy.

What is Newtonism?

Once we free ourselves from the doctrine of Newtonian atomic materialism impressed on us with increasing dosage at every stage of our education we will perceive that Newtonism is an organism. An organism of hierarchical type held by a professional creed.

Definition:

• Newtonism is a hierarchical bureaucracy.

All hierarchies share common characteristics. What is true for a hierarchical bureaucracy such as the Catholic church, made of Doctors of Theology, is also true for Newtonism, made of Doctors of Philosophy.

Once a hierarchy becomes well-entrenched, i.e., becomes older than 50 years, it cannot be overthrown because new generations will have no idea of a life before the hierarchy existed.

Newtonism is well-entrenched

The creed of this hierarchy is simple. Newtonism is based on calling Kepler’s rule Newton’s laws.

The creed of Newtonism:

• Kepler’s rule is Newton’s laws.

That Kepler’s rule is Kepler’s rule and not Newton’s laws is not something that can be proved or disproved by an experiment. No creed can be disproved by experiment.

Definition:

• Newtonism is religion because it is based on a creed.

Newtonian creed is enforced by three powerful hierarchies:

• The school
• The state
• The media

These are the same hierarchies who previously enforced the pre-Newtonian religion, namely, Christian-Peripatetic religion.

The school, the state and the media joined forces and created a powerful mythology around Newtonism. Newtonism is in the service of the school, the state and the media. This will not change.

Aristotle versus Newton

But if Aristotle could be toppled why not Newton? Imagine how powerful Aristotelian hierarchy must have looked to Newton. Compared to Aristotle Newton is nobody. Aristotle reigned supreme for 1500 years. Newton not yet 500.

So there must be a way to topple Newton.

Einstein failed to topple Newtonism

But look at Einstein. He tried to get rid of Newtonism but was defeated. Newtonist zealots instead planted His Majesty Isaac I’s standard G into Einstein’s equations and declared the equations and all its solutions Newtonian territory. This is really discouraging. Einstein actually made Newtonism stronger.

Napoleon said:

• What does not kill me makes me stronger.

Let there be a charismatic raider

We see that there needs to be a charismatic raider who will raid Newtonism the way Newton raided Aristotelianism. The charismatic raider must be mediagenic and a savvy marketer, a slick PR operative and must know how to handle reporters smoothly, in short he or she must be charismatic. I believe a female raider would be best candidate to replace Newton, after all who can have more charisma than a fame seeking female Doctor of Philosophy. If such a one existed, that is. ²

Well, looking around I don’t see a Newton-type raider of any gender who could replace Newton. The current charismatic Doctors are all in the service of the media peddling science fiction books as science. They work for the media. They don’t have the power to dictate to the media their own school. They don’t have a school. They have buzzwords.

The requirements to effect a change in scholastic hierarchy are very tough to meet. It’s more than repeating buzzwords in talk shows. Even Oprah cannot make your buzzword the creed of a lasting school no matter how often you repeat it. One buzzword does not a school make.

You can probably fix the health care system, eliminate tax, topple communism, bring down walls separating nations, unite Israelis and Arabs, or similarly, unite GR and QM, resolve all the singularities living in physics with your mathematical magic wand, on top of it all recover the golden fleece and have fish ride bicycles . . . yet Newtonism will still be there eluding your efforts to topple it.

Newton’s incredible achievement

Newton’s achievement was not trivial. I am not talking about his scientific achievement. That was trivial. And mostly stolen from others. I am talking about his marketing genius and his toppling of Aristotle. Newton achieved the impossible: he effected a change in the oldest and ugliest bureaucracy that ever existed.

But even more. Newton was such a marketing genius that he knew that a well-entrenched bureaucracy cannot be toppled, only its name can be changed. This is a law of nature as strong as Newton’s laws of physics.

Yet another one of those Newton’s laws:

• Entrenched hierarchical bureaucracy is eternal. Human life is finite. Humans cannot cooperate across generations. Therefore, no entrenched hierarchy can be toppled by humans.

Humans so far could not realize the fact that a mature hierarchy cannot be undone. Look at this band of ragtags storming a prison building because they were offended that someone told them to eat cake instead of bread. They wreck a prison building and believe they killed a hierarchy.

What does the hierarchy do to placate the stormers of buildings who confuse a hierarchy with a building? It gives them a slogan to chant as a prayer to the hierarchy: Liberte, egalite, fraternite.

And as the only concession to the stormers of buildings the hierarchy declares the day of the storming a national holiday. Big deal! Stormers are pacified because now they can take one more day off from serving the same hierarchy with a new name!

Newton changed the name of scholastic bureaucracy. People believe he exterminated scholasticism and established science.

Newton’s most important realization:

• Since entrenched bureaucracy cannot be removed change its name and pretend it is removed.

Newton knew this truth. When will the rest of us learn it?

The new name of scholasticism

Newton didn’t have to think hard about the new name he wanted to christen this old bureaucracy. Newton was a full-service marketing department by himself. Newton didn’t consider such names as Neo-Aristotelianism, of course, and he didn’t name it Newtonism either. No continental European would have called himself a Newtonian. Can you imagine an 18th century French member of the academy condoning a world view coming from the British? Except of course if his name were Voltaire, one of the most unapologetic propagandists in the service of Newtonism.
 
So Newton labels Newtonism Natural Philosophy. He then names his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. He then requires his disciples to call themselves Natural Philosophers. Thus Newtonism is born. Newton knew that no French would object to practicing Philosophie naturelle.

Theorem:

• Newton was the marketing genius of all times.

All outstanding problems in Newtonian physics can be solved by an application of this theorem. Example: Why there is no singularity at r=0? Because Newton was the marketing genius of all times. I leave others as an exercise.

Marketing, marketing, marketing

Consider that Aristotle himself did not overthrow a tradition. He established a school and he conducted his research and wrote books. His disciples did the rest. Also note that Galileo did not overthrow Aristotle. Newton did.

Important question:

• Why did Galileo and Einstein fail to overthrow the incumbent while Newton succeeded?

Suggested answer:

• Because Newton understood the game. Newton knew that this was a game of marketing. Nothing more.

Look at Galileo’s books. He wrote wonderfully readable witty books. He ridiculed scholastic doctors. He wrote engineering books used by engineers for generations. But they were not enough to cause change in scholasticism. Galileo’s books were not intended to become the scripture of a new school.

The Monumental Book

Newton didn’t bother to write a readable book. On the contrary he intentionally made his book unreadable. Newton wrote a Monumental Book. A Monumental Book belongs to a class of books that are not intended to be read. A Monumental Book exists as the revealed creed of a school. Newton did not write witty dialogue, he didn’t write an engineering handbook, he wrote a legal book. Newton wrote the quintessential Monumental Book.

Lesson to be learned:

• Newton’s Principia is a legal code written for Newtonian doctors to obey.

Doctors of Philosophy after three hundred plus years still believe in and defend Newton’s every word.

Network is the school

Newton spent his career preparing the infrastructure of his school by developing a powerful network of acolytes, allies and enemies. When his book was ready he unleashed the best marketing campaign the world has ever seen. Unlike Paul who had to work hard to market his book and suffered through the first book tour in history literally walking thousands of miles and braving the elements, shrewd doctor Newton did not even have to leave his Cambridge den to establish his book Principia as the sacred book of physics.

Theorem:

• Unless the same powerful marketing campaign is unleashed against Newton no change will occur and Newtonism will enjoy many centuries of dominance over human reason.

Proof? Newton himself told us so:

• For every action there must be an equal reaction [of the same kind].

If Newton established his school by marketing, Newton’s school can only be undone by marketing.

There may not be another Newton

When you consider that Newton is a black swan, a purple cow and a flying penguin combined into one we may not see another one like him during the lifetime of our solar system. Therefore it is possible that not a charismatic individual with an overarching anti-Newtonian vision but an institution with its own agenda will replace Newtonism.³

Conclusion:

• The new figurehead of scholasticism need not be the individual who spearheaded the change.

Once again we stand in awe of Newton’s marketing achievement. Not only he effected the change but he endowed himself with enough authority to make all the necessary definitions to establish himself as the new head of the European scholasticism. What is the source of Newton’s authority? We know what it is: Kepler’s rule.

Conclusion:

• There may not be another Newton because there may not be another Kepler’s rule.

Newton is dead. Long live Einstein

Einstein may be the person who will be promoted to the office of the new figurehead of scholasticism. At present, Newton and Einstein are in a state of uneasy cohabitation. To deny that there is a cohabitation physicists have developed one of their complex polemical sophistry which allows them to tell you Newton or Einstein or any other metaphor is the supreme head of their profession.

Physicists say Newton is the absolute king in one realm and Einstein in another but if you press harder they say the boundaries of realms are not so well defined. If you ask again they start to delve deep into scholastic physics and start discussing subtleties of time, space, spacetime, force and their species and you are sorry you asked.

Despite the polemical state of cohabitation Einstein may be reaching the tipping point to become the undisputed and polemics-defying Grand Master of all physics. Evidence: Some of the old Newtonian propaganda and buzzwords such as “annus mirabilis” is now being applied to Einstein as well revealing that a change of guards is in effect. Also consider how the Year of Physics was turned into the Year of Einstein by clever marketing.

Academic physics is academic

The definite change of guard from Newton to Einstein would be trivial to achieve for Doctors of Philosophy who will simply make minor changes in symbols and labels of Newtonian physics. Consider that academic physics is academic. This is why it is called academic physics. Changes in academic physics have no effect in practice. For instance, removing all Newtonian terms from academic physics will have no effect how satellites are put in orbit. This makes sense because no Newtonian terms are used to place a satellite into orbit.

It makes no difference if you replace the word Newton in the entirety of physics with Einstein. Everything will work as well as before. This change has already been in effect for a long time but unofficially. Einstein’s theory predicted a bending of light twice as much as the one predicted by Newton’s theory. Or was it the other way around? Don’t matter. Both can be derived by using both Newton and Einstein. After all you use Kepler’s rule to make the calculations.

Theorem:

• Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian mechanics are the two different branding of Kepler’s rule.

Academic physics exists because Big School must have material to teach to justify its existence. The more to teach the more money for the schools.
 
Academic physics also exists because the government needs academic cover for its military research. So it makes sense that a government agency or a big university with close ties to government such as Caltech will make the necessary changes to phase out Newton and start teaching Einstein as the new Newton. The government already uses Einstein, not Newton, as the scientific cover for military research, e.g., LIGO and LHC.

Einstein’s Monumental Book

Einstein did not write a Monumental Book, the sine qua non of a school, and this could have been a serious impediment for establishing Einstein as the new head of physics. Fortunately Einstein’s disciples have taken care of that business long ago. For years now physics students struggling through the thousand pages of MTW think that they are studying Einstein’s General Relativity.

Once again Newton’s genius shines:

• What three authors could barely establish with a thousand plus page book Newton singlehandedly achieved with a book 1/10 of the page count of MTW.

Einstein’s laws

To effect the change of name of the scholastic bureaucracy history must be rewritten. That’s no big deal, physicists rewrite history all the time. Mr. Henry Cavendish never claimed to have measured G but physicists thought that Mr. Cavendish was mistaken and they rewrote history so that Cavendish measured G.

Physicists will soon teach us that Newton was an early Einsteinian whose laws set the stage for Einstein. At present physicists say that Einstein reduces to Newton. Soon it will be proved mathematically beyond any doubt that Newton reduces to Einstein. Newton’s laws will now be called Einstein’s laws.

Newton vaporized

But in this new Einsteinian world order that’s not good enough. We want Newton defined as the evil scholastic doctor, the British occultist from Cambridge who poisoned with his occult theories the minds of generations of physicists and also human beings in general. Newton will be defined as the anti-science incarnate by the same physicists who happily teach Newtonism now.

Einstein must stand independent of Newton. Newton will be effectively vaporized.

Defining the post-Newtonian world

The post-Newtonian world can easily be achieved by the sophisticated methods well-known to Doctors of Philosophy. The fundamental rule used by both Newton and Einstein is Kepler’s rule. Textbooks will now derive Kepler’s rule from Einsteinian mechanics instead of Newtonian mechanics. You will retire your books of Newtonian Mechanics into the higher shelves of your library where you keep Descartes’ Philosophia Naturalis where he expounded his vortex theory.

Today, though, there is not yet a consensus among physicists that Newtonism needs to be eliminated. There is consensus for the opposite. Newtonism is well entrenched in education and in physics hierarchy where this decision must be made anyway. There is no incentive for physicists to change the Newtonian status quo. The change must come from outside.

So which do you think is the most probable scenario? A charismatic figurehead replacing Newton? Or an Einstein deified by the government as the new human genius closest to Gods? After all, as is well known, God said Let Einstein be! And all was light!

1. The book doesn’t have to be written. Just prepare a mock up with a cover. No talk show host ever opens the book and looks inside. [↩]
2. As an aside, note that, there is no need that the charismatic raider must be the author of the theory challenging the incumbent theory. The requirement that the author must also be the marketer of a theory is an old relic of scholasticism. Any theory can be marketed by an actor. We’ll consider this topic in another article. [↩]
3. What about the practitioners? Scholasticism is practiced by Newtonian Doctors of Philosophy. What will happen to them if Newtonism suddenly disappeared? In a hierarchical bureaucracy there cannot be an authority vacuum. An important office such as the figurehead of global scholasticism cannot be left vacant. If Newton is gone there must be someone else filling it immediately. [↩]

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