[TheForge] YAK relativity- WAY OT, or not...

[Andy Vida]

Darrell wrote:
> 
> From: <Connsmith722@aol.com>
> To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
> 
> >
> > By the way here folks X-rays escape from Blackholes indicating the ability
> to
> > move at a velocity greater than C...just to enrich this discussion
> >
> 
> Then if light doesn't escape from a black hole doesn't that show that light
> IS affected by gravity?

	I'd be surprised if it turned out that light was not acted upon
	by gravitational forces.  I developed a set of theories about
	this when I was in college.  ONe of my professors found them
	interesting and asked that I develop a mathematical model of
	them, but I was never sufficiently endowed in that discipline
	to do so, so I dropped it.

	As for the x-ray emissions, I don't think anyone can say for sure
	at what point they originate.  Theory is one thing, but direct
	observation would be more in keeping with clinching it.  I can
	imagine that the emission could originate just this side of the
	event horizon, just outside of the schwarzschild radius.  There
	would be an awful lot going on in that region, and things would
	be pretty excited.  X-rays are very high energy... perhaps enough
	to defeat the gravitational field just this side of the hole.
	Who knows.  This universe is so absolutely and utterly astounding
	and mysterious, there isn't much that would surprise me in terms
	of possibilities.  And that is precisely why I am skeptical about
	these theories, no matter how convincing or elegant they may seem.

	The attempt to formulate a Grand Unifying Theory is like trying
	to peer up God's butthole to see what's really going on.
	I'm not even remotely convinced of the possibility that such a
	theory can be formulated and in fact serve its intended purpose.
	Such a theory would of necessity constitute an absolutism and
	those have been demonstrated to be very dangerous, many of the
	world's religions being prime examples, and make no mistake that
	science as is largely practiced today is nothing more than the
	new mythology.  It may produce descriptions that more closely
	model that which is fundamentally unknowable, but it EXPLAINS
	nothing in what I might conversationally call "God's terms".