[MD] sideways drifting

[MarshaV]

At 11:41 AM 5/28/2006, Case wrote:
>It would be difficult to write an historical survey of the development of
>modern physics that includes much from the orient. Modern physics is, after
>all, a western phenomenon. It has, on the other hand, led many to examine
>the eastern perspective. Interpreting modern physics from an eastern
>perspective became something of a cottage industry in the 70s and 80s, with
>Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics and Gary Zukav's Dancing Wu Li Masters. Since
>for me at least the MoQ is a westernization of Taoism I rather connect ZMM
>to this genre.

I've read both the Capra and Zukav books and 
thought them excellent.  I was hoping their might 
be something new written and translated by 
Buddhist scientists.  And the MOQ is definitely a 
world view I deeply appreciate.  But why stop there.

>As far as writers who have clearly been influenced by the change in
>paradigm, Robert Anton Wilson has taken a sarcastic poke at modern life in
>his Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy as well as nearly everything else he has
>written. I see a bit of quantum weirdness in Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller
>and Tom Robbins as well. My personal favorite would be Douglas Adams. The
>Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally produced as a radio play and
>has been transformed verbatim into a TV miniseries, video game, books and
>most recently a movie. As an account of the universe in probabilistic terms
>it is a work of sheer genius.

Ahh, but modern life is too easy to poke fun of 
because it doesn't make any kind of sense.

>As an artist though wouldn't you say the Picasso, Dali and Escher are all
>efforts to break with at Newtonian world view?

Yes, they have made great efforts in breaking the 
Newtonian world view.  But this book, and I'm not 
yet half way through it, purports to build a new 
improved scientifically-based-and-tested cultural 
cosmology (but not the final or absolute 
cosmology).   And if it could be done, what would 
it look like?   How would it sound?  What words 
would be chosen and what would they mean.  How 
would it transmit comfort and acceptance?   And 
how would it sit on a canvas?  Maybe the website 
for the Hubble Telescope might give a hint.

         http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

Thanks,

Marsha