Hello hello! I might not be in Europe anymore, but I'm still travelling! Follow my current adventures in Thailand at timthethai.blogspot.com. Sawatdee!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Character of Physical Law
I've been reading a book, and I liked this section.
"We have a way of discussing the world, when we talk of it at various hierarchies, or levels. Now I do not mean to be very precise, dividing the world into definite levels, but I will indicate, by describing a set of ideas, what I mean by hierarchies of ideas.
For example, at one end we have the fundamental laws of physics. Then we invent other terms for concepts which are approximate, which have, we believe, their ultimate explanation in terms of the fundamental laws. For instance, 'heat'. Heat is supposed to be jiggling, and the word for a hot thing is just the word for a mass of atoms which are jiggling. But for a while, if we are talking about heat, we sometimes forget about the atoms jiggling - just as when we talk about the glacier we do not always think of the hexagonal ice and the snowflakes which originally fell. Another example of the same thing is a salt crystal. Looked at fundamentally it is a lot of protons, neutrons, and electrons; but we have this concept 'salt crystal', which carries a whole pattern already of fundamental interactions. An idea like pressure is the same.
Now if we go higher up from this, in another level we have properties of substances - like 'refractive index', how light is bent when it goes through something; or 'surface tension', the fact that water tends to pull itself together, both of which are described by numbers. I remind you that we have to go through several laws down to find out that it is the pull of atoms, and so on. But we still say 'surface tension', and do not always worry, when discussing surface tension, about the inner workings.
On, up in the hierarchy. With the water we have waves, and we have a thing like a storm, the word "storm" which represents an enormous mass of phenomena, or a "sun spot", or "star", which is an accumulation of things. And it is not worthwhile always to think of it way back. In fact we cannot, because the higher up we go the more steps we have in between, each one of which is a little weak. We have not thought them all through yet.
As we go up in this hierarchy of complexity, we get to things like muscle twitch, or nerve impulse, which is an enormously complicated thing in the physical world, involving an organization of matter in a very elaborate complexity. Then come things like "frog".
And then we go on, and we come to words and concepts like "man", and "history", or "political expediency", and so forth, a series of concepts which we use to understand things at an ever higher level.
And going on, we come to things like evil, and beauty, and hope...
Which end is nearer to God, if I may use a religious metaphor, beauty and hope, or the fundamental laws? I think that the right way, of course, is to say that what we have to look at is the whole structural interconnection of the thing; and that all the sciences, and not just the sciences but all the efforts of intellectual kinds, are an endeavour to see the connections of the hierarchies, to connect beauty to history, to connect history to man's psychology, man's psychology to the working of the brain, the brain to the neural impulse, the neural impulse to the chemistry, and so forth, up and down, both ways. And today we cannot, and it is no use making believe that we can, draw carefully a line all the way from one end of this thing to the other, because we have only just begun to see that there is this relative hierarchy.
And I do not think either end is nearer to God. To stand at either end, and to walk off that end of the pier only, hoping that out in that direction is the complete understanding, is a mistake. And to stand with evil and beauty and hope, or to stand with the fundamental laws, hoping that way to get a deep understanding of the whole world, with that aspect alone, is a mistake. It is not sensible for the ones who specialize at the other end, to have such disregard for each other. (They don't actually, but people say they do.) The great mass of workers in between, connecting one step to another, are improving all the time our understanding of the world, both from working at the ends and working in the middle, and in that way we are gradually understanding this tremendous world of interconnecting hierarchies."
-The Character of Physical Law, Chapter Five
Richard Feynman
"We have a way of discussing the world, when we talk of it at various hierarchies, or levels. Now I do not mean to be very precise, dividing the world into definite levels, but I will indicate, by describing a set of ideas, what I mean by hierarchies of ideas.
For example, at one end we have the fundamental laws of physics. Then we invent other terms for concepts which are approximate, which have, we believe, their ultimate explanation in terms of the fundamental laws. For instance, 'heat'. Heat is supposed to be jiggling, and the word for a hot thing is just the word for a mass of atoms which are jiggling. But for a while, if we are talking about heat, we sometimes forget about the atoms jiggling - just as when we talk about the glacier we do not always think of the hexagonal ice and the snowflakes which originally fell. Another example of the same thing is a salt crystal. Looked at fundamentally it is a lot of protons, neutrons, and electrons; but we have this concept 'salt crystal', which carries a whole pattern already of fundamental interactions. An idea like pressure is the same.
Now if we go higher up from this, in another level we have properties of substances - like 'refractive index', how light is bent when it goes through something; or 'surface tension', the fact that water tends to pull itself together, both of which are described by numbers. I remind you that we have to go through several laws down to find out that it is the pull of atoms, and so on. But we still say 'surface tension', and do not always worry, when discussing surface tension, about the inner workings.
On, up in the hierarchy. With the water we have waves, and we have a thing like a storm, the word "storm" which represents an enormous mass of phenomena, or a "sun spot", or "star", which is an accumulation of things. And it is not worthwhile always to think of it way back. In fact we cannot, because the higher up we go the more steps we have in between, each one of which is a little weak. We have not thought them all through yet.
As we go up in this hierarchy of complexity, we get to things like muscle twitch, or nerve impulse, which is an enormously complicated thing in the physical world, involving an organization of matter in a very elaborate complexity. Then come things like "frog".
And then we go on, and we come to words and concepts like "man", and "history", or "political expediency", and so forth, a series of concepts which we use to understand things at an ever higher level.
And going on, we come to things like evil, and beauty, and hope...
Which end is nearer to God, if I may use a religious metaphor, beauty and hope, or the fundamental laws? I think that the right way, of course, is to say that what we have to look at is the whole structural interconnection of the thing; and that all the sciences, and not just the sciences but all the efforts of intellectual kinds, are an endeavour to see the connections of the hierarchies, to connect beauty to history, to connect history to man's psychology, man's psychology to the working of the brain, the brain to the neural impulse, the neural impulse to the chemistry, and so forth, up and down, both ways. And today we cannot, and it is no use making believe that we can, draw carefully a line all the way from one end of this thing to the other, because we have only just begun to see that there is this relative hierarchy.
And I do not think either end is nearer to God. To stand at either end, and to walk off that end of the pier only, hoping that out in that direction is the complete understanding, is a mistake. And to stand with evil and beauty and hope, or to stand with the fundamental laws, hoping that way to get a deep understanding of the whole world, with that aspect alone, is a mistake. It is not sensible for the ones who specialize at the other end, to have such disregard for each other. (They don't actually, but people say they do.) The great mass of workers in between, connecting one step to another, are improving all the time our understanding of the world, both from working at the ends and working in the middle, and in that way we are gradually understanding this tremendous world of interconnecting hierarchies."
-The Character of Physical Law, Chapter Five
Richard Feynman
I'll have more to say about this later, but for now my feet are getting cold.
-T
Deutsch!
I'll admit, today's blog post is more of a special interest post, especially for my father. He's been working (very diligently!) and learning a bit of German, and I had been helping him before I left home, and I don't see why I shouldn't continue to do so. So today is just a bit of vocabulary; feel free to take a look or to pass it over.
Wohnen - To live (in a location)
Wohnen - To live (in a location)
(VO-nen, almost rhymes with Roman)
Normal conjugation
past participle: gewohnt (haben)
Normal conjugation
past participle: gewohnt (haben)
ich wohne
du wohnst
er/sie/es wohnt
wir wohnen
Sie wohnen
ihr wohnt
ihr wohnt
sie wohnen
Ich wohne in Massachusetts.
Ich wohne in Massachusetts.
Ich habe in California gewohnt.
Ich wohne in einem Haus.
Wo wohnst du?
Ich weiss nicht, wo ich naechstes Jahr wohnen werde.
(I live in Massachusetts)
(I lived in California)
(I live in a house)
(Where do you live?)
(I don't know where I will live next year)
verstehen (to understand)
(fair-SCHTAY-en)
normal conjugation
normal conjugation
past participle: verstanden (haben)
verstehe
verstehst
versteht
verstehen
verstehen
versteht
verstehen
verstehen
versteht
verstehen
Ich habe verstanden.
Ich habe nicht verstanden.
Ich habe nicht verstanden.
Hast du verstanden, was ich gesagt habe?
Ich verstehe nicht was wir machen.
Ich verstehe nicht was wir machen.
Ich kann dich nicht verstehen.
Verstehst du mich?
I understood.
I didn't understand.
I didn't understand.
Did you understand what I said?
I don't understand what we're doing.
I can't understand you.
Do you understand me?
Gucken/Schauen (german/austrian, to look or to watch)
(cook-en/show-en, (ow as in, ow! that hurts!))
normal conjugation
past participles: geguckt (haben), geschaut (haben)
Often used with preposition an (at)
Words are completely interchangeable.
Gucke mal! Schaue mal!
(Look!, or, Look at that!)
Gucke mich an. Schaue mich an.
(Look at me.)
Kannst du (mal) gucken, ob wir Brot haben?
Kannst du (mal) schauen, ob wir Brot haben?
Kannst du (mal) schauen, ob wir Brot haben?
(Can you see if we have bread? ob = if)
Er hat mich angeguckt. Er hat mich angeschaut.
(He looked at/watched me)
other words:
das Buch (BOO-ch, the book)
lesen, gelesen (LAY-zen, to read, read (past tense))
das Haus (HOW-s, the house)
das Haus (HOW-s, the house)
das Kind (kint, the child)
spielen, gespielt (SPEEL-en, to play, played)
das Handy (cell phone)
das Handy (cell phone)
der Stuhl (shtool, the chair)
der Sessel (ZESS-el, the armchair)
das Computer
das Computer
Have a nice weekend!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Getting Moving
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
More often than not, just getting the ball moving is the hardest part of getting out the door. I won't spend too long talking about this, but I do have just a few tips for anybody looking to travel in the near future:
For students and school faculty, studentuniverse.com is great. While it's not 100% of the best deals online, I'd say it picks up a good 85% of the cheapest prices- you can really save a lot booking with them. Especially check out the FarePlay section of the website- if you are willing to be flexible and have a broader time range, FarePlay will search the prices at all airports in a broad region in a long period of time. For instance, you could say, "I want to go to Eastern Europe sometime in August", and it will do all the hard sorting you'd usually have to do. It's pretty good!
Also- don't be afraid to book two one-way tickets rather than a single round-trip ticket. While it's not always cheaper, you can save a lot of money doing this, especially if you're flying in and out of separate airports.
Also- don't be afraid to book two one-way tickets rather than a single round-trip ticket. While it's not always cheaper, you can save a lot of money doing this, especially if you're flying in and out of separate airports.
For really cheap airlines, check out Iceland Air and Aerlingus. Lufthansa also has some pretty good deals, but you need to book pretty far in advance with them. If you do fly Iceland Air (which I did), you can add a stop in Reykjavik for up to five days at no additional cost... this is something I will definitely try next time.
Finally, check different airports. I've found that some airports are much, much more expensive than others. Vienna, Charles de Gaulle (Paris), and Barcelona, for example, are all very expensive, whereas Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Frankfurt tend to be cheaper. Hamburg, Munich, London, and Madrid are middle of the road.
For lodging and/or meeting locals, check out couchsurfing.org- sign up, make an account, and then you can write to local residents in each of your foreign destinations and arrange to spend a night or for on a couch, or just meet up for coffee- there's a lot of flexibility here, too.
So get to it!
So get to it!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Meet the Cast
“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain
Before I get too far ahead of myself, I think it's worthwhile to say a little bit about myself and some of the people who will be accompanying me on parts of my travels.
Tim Miller (yours truly)
I'm presently a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying mechanical engineering. I'm especially interested in product design and transportation technology, and I especially enjoy tinkering and music, basketball, badminton, and squash.I graduated from Lynnfield High School (Class of 2010) in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, and have two sisters and a brother. In 2009-2010 I lived in Luebeck, Germany with a host family. I was with AFS, a foreign exchange organization, and was a recipient of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship, which paid for most of my year. I love traveling and am glad to be back in Europe.
Bob
Bob, my father, is an avid and experienced traveler who will be accompanying me from July 5-July 20, in Luebeck, Bremen, Prague, Vienna, and potentially Budapest. Earlier this year Bob had the opportunity to travel with his daughter (my sister) Nelia through Bonn, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Glasgow. Bob enjoys tennis, woodworking, and craft beers, and he is a prolific photographer who will probably be the source of many of the photos in this blog.
Marlies
Marlies will be accompanying my father and me from July 12 on, showing us the finer parts of Vienna and Eisenstadt and exploring Salzburg with me. An Austrian herself, Marlies lived with my family this year, also through AFS, and I'm happy to call her my girlfriend. She enjoys vegetarian food and lacrosse and always has a smile and a positive attitude, and will miss Boston and her friends and host family very much. For you german-speakers, her blog can be found here.
Of course, there are lots of other characters who are sure to pop up- the Baake's, my old host family, my friends in Luebeck, the Renkens in Bremen, the Koch family- but we'll get to them in due time. Have a nice Wednesday!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Travel Blog 2.0
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
It's been almost a year since I've been able to call myself a foreigner. Many of you might remember my last travel blog, &etc, documenting my year abroad in Luebeck, Germany. Well, the year has come full circle- I'm back here again, and this summer I have a couple other destinations planned, too. I'll do my best to post here every once in a while, and share a little bit of something new with the 'foreigners' back home.
The itinerary for this summer is as follows:
- Luebeck, Germany (June 21 - July 6)
- Bremen, Germany (July 7-8)
- Luebeck, Germany (July 8-9)
- Prague, Czech Republic (July 9-12)
- Austria
- Vienna (July 12-14)
- Eisenstadt (July 15)
- Budapest, Hungary (potential) (July 18-19)
- Salzburg, Austria
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Of course, this is only a plan, and plans while travelling never mean all that much. I believe it was Steinbeck who once compared traveling to a marriage, saying the only way to get it wrong is to think you control it... but I digress.
In any case, welcome to my newest blog!
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