IV. Consequences of the SP 1

The first thing that one has to admit is the great success of the SP. We certainly

have obtained a strong power to manipulate nature. This has changed our daily

lives fundamentally and totally in its technological applications as well as in the

way we look upon and relate to nature.

The first success came with Newton's mechanics. In this theory Newton related

the changes in velocity of the motion, i.e. the accelerations, to the mass of the

particle and to the forces that act upon it. To get hold of these forces was to

harness nature and obtain the power to control her that was Bacon's aim. Thus

we have heard since long that we tame the forces of nature in the SP. It is then

clear how the idea of determinism became of primary importance.

The applications were soon attempted not only to the planetary system and to

ballistics but to all other fields of interest in nature, including physiology, with

varying success. The program of determinism was gradually met with obstacles

and the information needed to pursue it became simply to vast. Some new

principle needed to be introduced. The only one that like determinism does not

appeal to finality or purposes was the notion of chance and randomness. By

definition chance does not contain any reference to aim. Is it then really by

coincidence that two seminal works were published the same year, 1859, using

randomness to model phenomena in nature: Darwin's On the origin of species

and Maxwell's work on the theory of gases? After that the use of chance and

randomness to model physical phenomena was rapidly taken on by Boltzmann in

statistical mechanics, and finally by Heisenberg and Schrodinger in quantum

mechanics. Also the impact on our lives from the elucidation of electromagnetic

phenomena condensed into the so-called Maxwell's equations cannot be

overestimated. This makes part of continuum mechanics, or field theory.

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble, by measuring the spectral lines from distant stellar

objects, discovered that the lines are shifted towards long wave-lengths in the

spectrum: they are red shifted. The red shift increased inversely proportional to

the apparent brightness of the object. According to the psychophysical law of

Fechner and Weber, the brightness is logarithmically related to the luminosity.

Hubble therefore interpreted the red-shift as an effect of a Doppler shift. Distant

stellar objects are moving away from us with a speed proportional to the distance

from us. The conclusion is that the universe is expanding. This has led to the

modern theory of the universe as expanding from a very hot start in the so-called

Big Bang. More and more data seem to support this view and add more details to

the scenario.

Finally elementary particle physics has been introduced to describe the early

phases of the universe, when it was very hot and the particles moved with

velocities even higher than what can be reached in modern particle accelerators.

The merging between elementary particle physics and modern cosmology has

led to attempts to formulate a unified theory of all interactions and all forces: a

Theory of Everything (TOE). This is not the place to discuss the prospects for

such a theory and its possible implications. It suffices to say that it is the ultimate

goal of a fully reductionistic approach to the physical universe.

If we would cartoon the accelerating success during the 20th century it could

go something like this: Due to the SP we have been able to split the atom and its

nucleus, we have been able to tame the nuclear force, we have been able to

transplant hearts, we can manipulate life in its beginning and at its end, we have

put a man on the moon and claim that we know how the expanding universe was

born. We also pretend that we will be able to formulate a theory of everything

(TOE). “Success pyramidal!” The 20th century has truly witnessed a

development unlike anything in known history. We readily have to admit that.

But in being a human project the SP also has other consequences.

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