Week 8/10 : Classical Physics - Newton, Descartes
Newton’s Three Laws and me
1st Law of Motion
Objects in rest tend to stay at rest & objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
I totally take this realization for granted because it seems like common sense. And now after learning about quantum physics, it seems like it excludes a lot of factors.
2nd Law of Motion
Force equals mass x acceleration & Acceleration equals force divided by mass.
This makes sense to me. But I don’t feel inspired to elaborate on it a lot.
3rd Law of Motion
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
You can see this applies in a big way to the physical world, but it doesn’t apply to the world of relationship dynamics or human psychology.
Our “Energy Efficient” Culture
The American Culture is undoubtedly wasteful. It's based on excessive consumption & convenience. There’s energy wasted on every level of industrial production and capitalist systems. It’s really upsetting, actually. You can see the linear structure of capitalist consumption destroying the environment. Nature has a sustainable system in place already. We should utilize our ability to create technology and products that mimic nature: compostable everything, reusing materials, sharing items that are long-life and short-term use. I sincerely wish our social structure was founded on environmental sustainability rather than profit.
Descartes has a lot to answer for!
OH Descartes! I feel like he was depressed. He came to believe that the only thing that confirmed his existence was thought, but there’s a limit of purpose to that point of view. Why strip away meaning from everything and feed that mechanistic, reductionist perspective into society? We NEED to look at things as a whole and perhaps if we did during the industrial revolution we would have Much less waste and environmental destruction. When you see everything is connected & you consider how your actions affect the environment, you should take responsibility for that. I feel like the western obsession with a mechanical cosmic view has led to disssociation from nature/the universe, and has resulted in a sick society. There are definitely LOTs of positive individuals and Groups working on balancing this with more inclusive, expanded perspectives in order to heal the epidemic of depression, anxiety, and environmental damage.
I agree with you about our wasteful American culture- do you have any practices around consumption reduction that you'd like to share? One that was taught to me that I really like and have incorporated in my life ever since is a very simple act of bucket flushing. Basically, I have a bucked in the shower for when I'm running the water to warm up- I collect the cold water, and keep it next to the toilet. Whenever we need to flush the toilet, we just pour a good amount of the cold water in, and the pressure flushes the toilet. Rather unglamorous, and unnecessary if I was brave enough to not run the cold water in the first place, but a helpful tidbit that has stayed with me from my punk rock days.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments. Thank you.
ReplyDelete'...linear structure of capitalist consumption destroying the environment'... well -worded picture statement. I saw it.
Good though though but it took us going the 'industrial revolutionary' route to realize the limited materials supply and global environmental impact our consumption has cost. Sometimes we learn from our mistakes and this may be one of those times as evidenced by your contagious passion. You made it personal for me that my (not just OUR) actions effect others and I (not just the WE) need to take responsibility for them. It starts with the individual us, me.