In a recent post we discussed some problems with information age science. Specifically, that via electronic peer-pressure we have all but eradicated the scientific method in favor of a popularity contest in it’s place. Not so dissimilar to Facebook likes, theories are currently ranked, not by merit, but by popularity.
Have you ever been discussing something confusing and heard a word or whole sentence that you didn’t understand, but when asked if you understood you instinctively nodded? You’re not alone, most people do that sometime or another. “You know so-and-so town?” … “Uh huh…”
While this should not be true in scientific circles, it’s not only true, but it seems to be more common there than anywhere else. Thanks to the information age, science has become so specialized that the number of individuals capable of even using the correct vocabulary to discuss some topics are in the sub-hundreds and even they don’t always use the same terms. So the rest of those so-called “peer-reviewers” are just “nodding” away like a bobble-head on the dash of a truck with busted shocks.
As we explained just a few weeks ago in that previous article about atheists and faith, how the information age has led to peer-pressure in the form of peer-review that has wreaked havoc and ushered in an era of scientific absurdity that would have Newton rolling in his grave. The latest gravitational wave detection by LIGO is a prime example of this self-perpetuating delusion.
There is still a rather large assumption here, and that assumption is that the speed of light is constant.
A big problem with the claim that this “proves Einstein was right” is that it actually doesn’t. There is still a rather large assumption here and that assumption is that the speed of light is constant.
The speed of light is incredibly difficult to measure exactly, so in true scientific form, different readings are written off to +/- margins of error. LIGO is not much more than a gigantic light-speed detector. Actually 2 of them, located in two different places. Kudos to our scientific community for this tool, it is truly remarkable, and the money invested is astonishing. Yet, no matter how much money, and how grand a scheme is built on top of a small assumption, that cannot make up for the fact that there’s still an unproven (and unlikely) assumption there.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to write these people off as though they were a bunch of high school kids playing with methane. The detectors are calibrated so precisely that they are capable of detecting minute changes in the speed of light with unprecedented accuracy. Yet to “prove” Einstein’s theory, they’d have to prove that space actually contracted, and this cannot be done without first proving that the speed of light truly is invariable.
It stands to reason that the speed of light would be constant for the most part on our planet. If it varies, it should probably vary by the same factor consistently, which is easily calibrated out with the LIGO detectors. In other-words, nothing about LIGO determines that the speed of light is constant, it only detects when it momentarily changes. Per relativity, they do assume that it cannot change, and therefore any detected difference *MUST* mean that space has been dilated and the distance momentarily shortened, but again, that doesn’t prove anything, unless the underlying assumption is true.
What else could it mean you ask? Well, it could mean that the speed of light is not constant and when the areas-of-space-that-cause-things-to-move-in-such-a-way-as-to-apparently-defy-the-absence-of-matter-nearly-inversely (aka “black holes”) collide with each other, they emit a form of radiation that actually interferes with the speed of light rather than the distance between two points.
The Occam’s Razor approach to this observation without assuming all of the dozens of assumptions that are “hypo-stacked” to create the headlines we’re seeing about relativity being “proven”, is to accept that a lot of energy was released. Since there are only a few forms of energy that we’ve actually observed, the most likely is a variant of electro-magnetic energy at a frequency we’re not familiar with at this spectrum. A spectrum capable of causing the light traveling through LIGO to be briefly accelerated (if I’m reading the graph correctly, it may be inverted).
This doesn’t discount the value of this observation. Good science should think this is fabulous. We have proven, for the first time ever, that the speed of light (be it relative or actual) can be and is changed by cosmic events across large swaths of the planet (if not the whole solar system). Since I myself still suspect that aether has not been dis-proven, as mentioned in the prior article, I will now spend my time pondering what was happening at the quantum level for the moment that this change occurred. Since mainstream pop-sci does not believe we can actually observe space-time dilation because their theory is entirely relative, I’ll be virtually alone in my thought experiments, as I imagine momentarily energized subatomic particles momentarily conducting light waves faster than they normally do and returning back to a slightly less energetic state afterward, due to some mysterious EM radiation. I’ll more easily be able to simultaneously imagine the demonstrations of Lene Hau’s experiments from 17 years ago that already proved that we cannot assume that the speed of light is constant, without being hindered by all of the “orthodox” assumptions I’m required to accept in “faith” per the peer-pressuring-peer-reviewers of the 21st century.
Alas, I’m not a specialist. I’m not likely to do much more than imagine. I’m a so-called “expert” in other things. However, that does not disqualify me from having an opinion about this discovery. An opinion validated by my seat on the jury. A seat awarded by my birth into the human race. We can hardly call it “science” if it proceeds with disqualifying those who disagree. Even if it purports to have the answer key of who is credible and who is not. Theories remain theories, and relativity was most certainly not proven by LIGO.
The phenomenon is really cool though.
Yes, the problem with the gravity wave is just as bad as the many claims that scientists make. When they are disproved, they ostracise the scientist who proves otherwise. Einstein’s theory of relativity is so complex that few people truly understand it and is based on the speed of light being the universal constant in his equations. There is a problem with the neutrino that tended to disprove Einstein’s theories also, but the scientist who made the discovery has been “expelled” from their scientific community. How dare anyone question Einstein anyways?
Saw this article this morning and it’s excellent. Reading different coverage of this reminded me of the Higgs Boson announcement from a few years back and how after the cyber-tsunami of matter-of-fact articles were duplicated like a fission reaction, they trickled away and the more sensible articles appeared pointing out that even those original articles admitted they hadn’t actually proven anything at all. These are convenient ways to exit expensive projects and save face, but they cause so much confusion among the population that they become blatant lies. I think you’re ahead of the curve on this one. I look forward to the sensible articles to come out and confirm your wise analysis.