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August 01, 2022

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“It's often said that intuition plays a big role in science, as in everyday life. However, intuition isn't divorced from facts, but is an outgrowth of facts.”


……….Good to have it spelt out clearly like that. While the role of intuition is very important in all creative pursuits, including science; but people sometimes misunderstand how exactly intuition informs science. One of those misunderstandings extends to conflating the “intuition” of mysticism, with the “intuition” of science. While it is the same word there, but I believe the two usages refer to two separate beasts. As your car example clearly explains, it is very well informed intuition that does the trick, where science is concerned, not random intuition. And further, and although you don’t spell it out, it isn’t as if this intuition is in any shape or form inerrant: it is very rigorous and extensive follow-up and testing that translates into that intuition amounting to anything at all, and I suspect far more of intuitions are thrown right out the window on being found lacking on that latter count, or else are amended beyond recognition from their original form, than are finally accepted as-is.


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“the Milky Way and Andromeda are on course to eventually collide and merge”


……….Oh, I hadn’t known this! Of course, this is just an incidental snippet, and not by any means the focus of Chandra Prescod-Weinstein’s book or of your article, but like I said this is the first I've of this, and I found it fascinating, the prospect of this collision.

Just looked it up, and the projected event even has its own separate Wikipedia entry. (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision#:~:text=The%20Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky%20Way%20collision,Earth)%20and%20the%20Andromeda%20Galaxy. ) Incidentally, the Wiki page also includes a fascinating video of a simulation of the collision, that’s guaranteed to give you goosebumps!

But not to worry. For one thing, it’s scheduled to happen in another 4.5 billion years, not anytime soon (for perspective, that’s very approximately age of our earth); and for another, apparently no stars are projected to collide, they’ll probably simply pass through the (enormous) gaps in between, so we needn’t be worried about getting physically blown up to bits, apparently.

But still, it isn’t as if there’s no negatives projected. First of all, new constellations, new galaxies, new star systems may well be formed in that giant single galaxy that will result; and who knows where we’ll end up finding ourselves? Post-merger departmental shake-ups are always the stuff of nightmares, as anyone who’s been through one will testify. Secondly, some stars from either original galaxy may well be thrown right out of the new mega-galaxy (those “redundancies” that inevitably follow on most M&As); and who is to say that won’t happen to ours? Thirdly, those black hole thingies: apparently some stars, including our sun as well, might either be torn apart by coming too close to one, maybe even absorbed right into one. And finally, and most importantly, that issue that dogs all major M&As: What to call the new entity, how to brand this new giant baby? Names like Milkomeda and Milkdromeda are being thrown around, apparently, which frankly sound disastrous to my ears: that’s like worse than the utterly unimaginative “Meta” that was put in place of the iconic Facebook. Still, while this branding problem is obviously very very important, but then we do have another four billion plus years to think up a cool name, so perhaps all is not lost after all.

Chandra P-W's got a cool website going! (The same one you've linked to right near the top of your article. This one: http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/)

Just browsed at random through it, and very briefly checked out a video she's put up there. (She's got more than one video, I only glanced through the one.)

Looks interesting overall. I've bookmarked the page, and intend to browse around a bit more at leisure later on.

@ A.R. [ One of those misunderstandings extends to conflating the “intuition” of mysticism, with the “intuition” of science... {the lattter} is very well informed intuition that does the trick, where science is concerned, not random intuition. And further, and although you don’t spell it out, it isn’t as if this intuition is in any shape or form inerrant: it is very rigorous and extensive follow-up and testing that translates into that intuition amounting to anything... ]

I think there's also conflation of real mysticism with what happens at seance parlors and
in lottery queues. An authentic mystic's intuition is arguably just as rigorous and vetted as
any scientist's. He replaces blind faith and untested theories with what he repeatably can
experience within consciousness. He has a potentially large advantage in this effort due to
the cognitive benefits and keen memory his mindfulness practice has been proven to pro-
vide.

It's total woke bullshit to say science is rife with racism.

Science prank...
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/europe/scientist-space-image-chorizo-intl-scli-scn/index.html

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