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How About Superconductor

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Posted by Richard Ruquist on August 7, 2003 13:31:47 UTC

The only problem I have with nomological is that nobody knows what it means except philosophers and crossword puzzle enthusiasts.

Apparently you do not have a problem with the word superconductor or superfluid, or even supersymmetry. Supernatural following this use of the word should have a well defined meaning in physics. If super... means something different in philosophy, then perhaps they will have to understand a new definition.

In current physics usage, super implies minimal friction, etc. So I do not understand how the philosophers reversed the meaning and usage of super... Perhaps that is your own meaning and not that of all philosophy.

So bottomline, in physics use of super does not mean 'not understandable'. It means minimalistic. Minimum friction when refering to materials. Even in supersymmetry, it implies a cancelation of infinities. Although in that case its use is more associative.

And the supersymmetric particles are the leading candidates for the constituents of Dark Matter, which I claim to be at least part of the supernatural. Either Dark Matter is super because it contains supersymetric particles or it is super because it contains a superfluid of axions, or both. Dark Matter in my mind is definitely supernatural, just as superconductors are.

You are perhaps bothered because the word supernatural has a definite history. It implies other worlds may exist which can support intelligent life and perhaps even gods.

Well, that is exactly what I expect Dark Matter and perhaps Dark Energy to be, other worlds that we are immersed in but cannot detect in physics experiments. Only astronomers have detected evidence for the existence of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. All the physics experiments have had negative results.

So my use of the word supernatural is consistent with both previous use of super in physics and with all the implications of that word throughout history. I just think it will all be explainable with physics some day.

Thanks for the opportunity to state that.

Richard

Richard

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