CLASSICAL PHYSICS

newton's three laws and me:

by now these laws seem painfully obvious without the advent of quantum physics. they have been a gift and a curse to western development. we have many great things from the development of this rational culture, but to imagine that all things can be explained by newtonian/cartesian thinking will not serve us in the end.

our "energy (in)efficient" culture:

at this point our culture can be seen as anything but efficient. almost everyone owns a car - and drives to work - alone - in an SUV - fifty miles each way - i could go on of course. if anyone thinks this is a basis for rational living i would direct them to the movies "the end of suburbia". and "the corporation". half of the worlds resources are now controlled by less than 50 companies. this unfortunate occurrence has been sold to people all over the world as "globalism" - a good thing for all. one by product of this phenomenon is non local food being shipped all over the country so that a single multi-national company can supply 80% of the total food supply to consumers. not very efficient. further examples of inefficiency are obvious and too numerous to mention here.

descsrtes has a lot to answer for.

i would agree. his famous quote "i think therefore i am" is a fatal flaw in perception. it is mind masquerading as consciousness. he is associating who he is with what he thinks - this is the mind "tricking" the observer. who we are is never our thoughts. people usually imagine they are the last thought or emotion (condensed thought) they have felt or observed. ask a happy person who he is and he will probably say, "I am a happy guy", or someone sad at the moment will say he is a sad person. neither is correct. after all we have many different feelings and thoughts throughout our lives. think of the absurdity if we associated our identity with other feelings - hot and cold for example. one would not say "i am a hot person" just because he felt the sensation of heat at the moment. but our minds have become astute at tricking us into assuming an identity from certain emotions and thoughts we have.