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Article

Wiggleworm physics

SEP 01, 1962
Jerome Rothstein

WE know that our picture of the universe is very strongly influenced by our means of perception. Basically, we are eye‐hand‐coordinated animals. Perhaps our sensory and psychological apparatus prejudices us in favor of some particular picture of the universe, when in reality the picture is warped by being filtered through our particular sensory and nervous equipment. This is, of course, a very old philosophical problem, and one can say that the use of measuring apparatus sensitive to things we cannot observe directly would go a long way toward removing this kind of prejudice. The suspicion remains, however, that intelligent beings very differently endowed than we are might come up with a very different picture of the world. For example, the space‐time of such a creature might have a dimensionality different from ours, or other concepts might be basic and lead to a whole different structure from the one we have so painfully evolved over the centuries—often by stripping away prejudices.

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More about the authors

Jerome Rothstein, Maser Optics, Inc., Boston, Mass..

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 15, Number 9

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