X-Message-Number: 14828
From: 
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 13:02:59 EST
Subject: return of the aether?

There was a post today to the FoR (Fabric of Reality) group by Prof. Fred 
Rothwarf, referring to published work of his late brother, Prof. Allen 
Rothwarf, on new ideas concerning quantum mechanics and relativity. The 
paper, "An Aether Model of the Universe," published in Physics Essays 11, 
444-466, 1998, is available at

http://cbis.ece.drexel.edu/ECE/fac_staff_pages/rothwarf_page.html

This "aether" consists of an electron-positron plasma as a degenerate Fermion 
fluid. Among other very interesting consequences, it is said to remove the 
quantum wave/particle duality so troublesome for a century and to remove the 
need for a Multiverse hypothesis.

As I have said before, I earnestly hope the Multiverse is not factual, since 
it seems to imply that everything "possible" happens, and almost everything 
"possible" is horrible. Let's hope there is indeed, as Prof. Rothwarf says, 
just one universe. 

As for Perry's universal resurrection in the far future, through re-creation 
of people by computer emulation, this would not necessarily be a death blow, 
as far as I can see. If emulation would work at all in the sense of creating 
feeling beings--which I doubt--the future programmers might just choose to 
create or re-create pleasant scenarios, not nasty ones.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org 

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