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TimS comments on Configurations and Amplitude - Less Wrong
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Comments (375)
Well said. Personally, I prefer this argument for science.
You know, that comic has always bugged me a bit. The quantum electrodynamics bit makes sense, but I see no way all that GPS devices are dependent on relativity to work. To get them to work right, we have to design them to account for the predictions of relativity, rather than just classical mechanics, but if the universe ran on classical mechanics rather than relativity, I can't see any way in which it would prevent us from creating GPS devices; it seems to me that it would be even easier.
Relativity has loads of experimental support, but unless you count nuclear energy, which was already observed before the advent of the theory of relativity, if not explained, then I'm stuffed for examples on how industry's benefited from it being true.
Yeah, the comic seems to be missing the mark there.
Still, if we designed them to work taking into account relativity, and the universe ran on classical mechanics, then they would not work.
I did not know that the GPS - relativity connection was wrong. Thanks.
Well it's not so much that the connection was wrong. It just didn't fit the pattern of "If this were real, people would be making a lot of money from it". Because relativity doesn't make GPS easier or cheaper. It's just that if relativity were false, our GPS systems would be constructed differently.
Failing to fit the pattern counts as wrong. The comic I cited is making an implicit assertion that that pattern holds, and this assertion is wrong.
Relativity works describing reality, so companies are making a killing using it to build accurate GPS devices. A bit more roundabout than some of the others, but doesn't seem "wrong".
But unlike all the others, if Relativity weren't true, they'd still be able to do that. They'd just do it by not incorporating the predictions of Relativity.
If electricity worked by classical models, we wouldn't be building semiconductor circuits differently, we wouldn't be able to build them at all. All the others could be implemented for initiatives that would be possible if they were real, but impossible otherwise, so Relativity is the odd one out.
There are doubtless other models by which electricity could hypothetically work that would allow circuits that do interesting things. I don't see where the focus on specific "classical models" is drawn from.