Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999
Newton, Gravitation, and Causality
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
While I haven't yet listened to Harriman's lectures, I agree
with Stephen on the <gravity> point. In fact, I have been arguing
for years that there are no equations representing anything
moving from one body to another (separated by a spatial
distance), giving rise to fields. The gravitational force in
Newton's equations are not brought about by the action (or
change) of anything (i.e. they are disembodied), leading to many
confusions and contradictions, and ultimately the conception of
a field as something that "just is" and itself acting on those
bodies (a point Harriman speaks out against, according to an
earlier quote on that topic).
A more rational approach would be to say there is something
immediately surrounding a body, that is (somehow) affected by
that body, which change then propagates out, thereby influencing
another body spatially separated from the first. In other words:
The first body does something to the aether (for lack of a
better term), enacting a change in the aether, and this change
in the aether moves through the aether (like a wave or a pulse)
until it reaches another body, where it is changed again,
leading to a change of position of the second body. This doesn't
make sense if one thinks of the aether as being static and set
in motion (or changed) by the first body (because where would
the energy come from?), but it makes a great deal of sense if
one thinks of the aether as already being active, and the first
body leading to a change in that activity.
As I understand it, this is very similar to Lewis Little's
conception of the elementary waves being modified by matter,
thereby leading to an action of matter. However, I think if one
went back and redesigned the equations of fields with an active
aether approach, Lewis Little's waves would actually have a real
oscillation. That is, if one corrected the equations of fields
such that they were the result of an active aether, then the
waves of quantum mechanics would not be hidden any longer.
