<div dir="auto"><span style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:-apple-system,"Helvetica Neue";font-size:26px;word-spacing:1px">\u201chairball heterarchy of metaphor\u201c</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:-apple-system,"Helvetica Neue";font-size:26px;word-spacing:1px"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:-apple-system,"Helvetica Neue";font-size:26px;word-spacing:1px">Now there\u2019s a Wikipedia article in need of writing. </span></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jul 3, 2023 at 9:14 AM glen <<a href="mailto:gepropella@gmail.com">gepropella@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Yeah, Sutter triggered me when he said "but you don't have to worry about that if you don't know what an integral is". I mean ... maybe? This stuff is like heroin to an addict, right? Models upon models upon models. And not just in a simple stack, but a hairball heterarchy of metaphor.<br>
<br>
You kinda do need to know what an integral is, right? I mean ... [sigh] ... I guess that's a rabbit hole, too. The only way you can understand what an integral *is* (not merely those pesky aspects like what a particular type of integration is *good for* ... noooooo, we don't need to know that, we're after the *essence* of integration) is to use it to do work. To understand integration, you must integrate some particular thing over some particular domain.<br>
<br>
That same principle ("What I can't create, I don't understand.") applies to Action ... and brewing ... and cleaning your carburetor. You will never understand carburetors until you *use* carburetors to do some particular thing ... like drive across the country in broken down jalopy.<br>
<br>
I feel like there's an analogy waiting to be made between [mal|mis|dis]information and the popularization of [physics|math|biology]. Books like Thiel's "The Straussian Moment" seem similar to books like Kaku's "Quantum Supremacy". And the category they compose seems similar to arm-chair opining on:<br>
<br>
\u2022 foreign affairs like Prigozhin's mutiny,<br>
\u2022 epidemiology like the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and<br>
\u2022 deep sea physics and the Titan submersible.<br>
<br>
I've probably mentioned this before. But I learned a new word awhile back: ultracrepidarian cf <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutor,_ne_ultra_crepidam" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutor,_ne_ultra_crepidam</a>. Yes, I'm as guilty as the next shoemaker. But sometimes it's good to simply stay in one's lane, at least until you've done some homework.<br>
<br>
Just to complete the arc of this rant, am I crazy for getting a distinct Cult Prophet vibe circa 13:39 in the video: <a href="https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M?t=819" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M?t=819</a> ? When Sutter says, with cadence envied by every budding preacher in every small town church across the country: "The Least Action Principle is a generator of Physics. The Least Action Principle is a Creator of Physics. It is a Mother Principle that allows Physicists to generate Laws of Physics and Equations of Motion. It's . right . there. Folks you can write down a Lagrangian ..." I mean, that's some good ole down home fever-eyed preachin' right there. Reminds me of Keith Raniere of the NXIVM sex cult.<br>
<br>
Do you see it?!?! Do you?!? It's right there! The Secret <<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(Byrne_book)" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(Byrne_book)</a>> to the universe.<br>
<br>
On 7/2/23 23:16, Stephen Guerin wrote:<br>
> The Action is the integral of the Lagrangian along the whole path, not just a single instant.<br>
> <br>
> On Sun, Jul 2, 2023, 9:12 PM Nicholas Thompson <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> So the difference is at a positive max when the ball hits the ground and at a negative maximum when the ball reaches its highest altitude? So how am I to understand positive and negative? vectors?<br>
> <br>
> Instantaneious Action is at a minimum when the two terms are equal?<br>
> <br>
> I have no intuitive sense of what is going on here.<br>
> <br>
> But thanks for trying, Frank.<br>
> <br>
> N<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> N<br>
> <br>
> On Sun, Jul 2, 2023 at 12:27\u202fPM Nicholas Thompson <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> Frank,<br>
> <br>
> Thanks SO MUCH for forwarding this to me. To any other defrocked english majors on Friam, who have listened to these guys blather on about LaGrangians for all these years, I highly, HIGHLY recommend the video. Pretty short, AND, you might possibly, conceivably understand Steve Guerin when you get to the end. Yeah. Really.<br>
> <br>
> Nick<br>
> <br>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>
> From: *Frank Wimberly* <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank">wimberly3@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>><br>
> Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 2:53\u202fPM<br>
> Subject: Fwd: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube<br>
> To: Nicholas Thompson <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>>><br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> ---<br>
> Frank C. Wimberly<br>
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz,<br>
> Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
> <br>
> 505 670-9918<br>
> Santa Fe, NM<br>
> <br>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>
> From: *Frank Wimberly* <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank">wimberly3@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>><br>
> Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023, 12:51 PM<br>
> Subject: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube<br>
> To: Thompson, Nicholas <<a href="mailto:nickthompson@earthlink.net" target="_blank">nickthompson@earthlink.net</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:nickthompson@earthlink.net" target="_blank">nickthompson@earthlink.net</a>>>, Barry MacKichan <<a href="mailto:barry.mackichan@mackichan.com" target="_blank">barry.mackichan@mackichan.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:barry.mackichan@mackichan.com" target="_blank">barry.mackichan@mackichan.com</a>>><br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <a href="https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M</a> <<a href="https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M</a>><br>
> <br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
\ua66e M\u0265\u01ddu \u01ddl\u01ddd\u0265\u0250u\u0287s \u025f\u1d09\u0183\u0265\u0287' \u0287\u0265\u01dd \u0183\u0279\u0250ss sn\u025f\u025f\u01dd\u0279s\u02d9 \ua66e<br>
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-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .<br>
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