Materialistic Thought Experiment

[ourlivinguniverse]

Classical physics was predicated on a materialistic mindset, which automatically assumed that basic matter is entirely inanimate. To the Victorians atoms and any other particles are objects which respond to forces. And from that we have spent much time trying to elicit what those fundamental forces of nature are.

For the past 100 years, quantum mechanics has been trying to tell us otherwise. And we've been moving away from the materialistic approach. But are we willing to take the full leap.

What if we saw particles of matter responding spontaneously to their energetic environments (just as bacteria respond spontaneously to their sugar environment). All those forces that we observe (gravity, electrical, magnetic, strong, weak) would then be the consequence of the behaviour of matter and not the cause.

If you follow through this way of thinking then it is possible to attribute all those forces to the behaviour of matter under different energetic circumstances. The reasons why we have phases of matter such as gas, solid and liquid become explicable. And, better still, the conundrum of wave-particle duality becomes trivial to answer. Oh, and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics can be explained without going through statistical mechanical contortions.

[KJW]

14 minutes ago, ourlivinguniverse said:

The reasons why we have phases of matter such as gas, solid and liquid become explicable. And, better still, the conundrum of wave-particle duality becomes trivial to answer. Oh, and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics can be explained without going through statistical mechanical contortions.

Ok, so go on, explain those things.

 

[Bufofrog]

4 hours ago, ourlivinguniverse said:

And, better still, the conundrum of wave-particle duality becomes trivial

I didn't know there was a conundrum,

[swansont]

4 hours ago, ourlivinguniverse said:

What if we saw particles of matter responding spontaneously to their energetic environments

If it’s a response, it’s not spontaneous. The behavior is induced.

4 hours ago, ourlivinguniverse said:

If you follow through this way of thinking then it is possible to attribute all those forces to the behaviour of matter under different energetic circumstances. The reasons why we have phases of matter such as gas, solid and liquid become explicable. And, better still, the conundrum of wave-particle duality becomes trivial to answer. Oh, and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics can be explained without going through statistical mechanical contortions.

Saying “it can be explained” is easy. Coming up with a working model is what’s needed.