Science 101 is that you cannot just define your terms and then simply 'do the math'. If it were that simple, then humanity would never have had to evolve beyond ancient Greek science which tried to do this very thing (which actually became an impediment to their discovery of experimental science). Anyone who tells you that they have discovered the 'laws of physics' from first principles is likely failing to tell you one important issue, they make no new claims and therefore their scheme becomes unverifiable. You have to accept their scheme simply because it verifies the science that has already been accomplished. There are a number of philosophical reasons why this is no great feat, but it boils down to the term "Monday morning quarterback". Anyone can tell you how a play should have been constructed on Monday for the previous Sunday's game in order to make the game winning play, but unfortunately (or fortunately) the winning quarterback is the one who can successfully predict the play that will win and is proven right. As glamorous as Dick's math might seem, it is nothing but centuries old Monday morning quarterbacking.

• ancient Greek science - sagefr0g - May 6, 2003 - 09:58 UTC
  • Ya de ya de ya - harvey1 - May 6, 2003 - 11:56 UTC
    • Correction - harvey1 - May 6, 2003 - 11:57 UTC