Preposterous Universe

 
Logic

A nice article about dark energy by Rich Monastersky in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week, unfortunately only available to subscribers. But I think it falls under fair-use doctrine for me to quote this one paragraph:

In the space of seven years, the dark-energy revolution has rewritten textbook entries on how the universe operates and what will ultimately happen to the cosmos. Yet dark energy is a nebulous concept, one that has thus far flummoxed some of the smartest researchers on the planet. "The fundamental physics of dark energy is a complete mystery to us right now," says Sean Carroll, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Chicago.

Now, strictly speaking, what the paragraph says is that the smartest researchers on the planet are flummoxed by this problem, and also that I am flummoxed by this problem. So we cannot conclude, using the rigorous dictates of logic, that I am one of the smartest researchers on the planet. But if we look beyond the surface to the subtle subtextual implications, I think the message is clear.

~ posted by Sean Carroll at 4:04 PM ~ link ~ ~ ~