Philosophical Dynamics 2

AREA #1.8 
NATURE AND 
THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE… 

One of the most relevant points to begin to observe about nature, and the physical universe, is the fact that nature seems to supply all of the necessary physical resources to sustain human life… And an increased understanding of nature will also typically help our understanding of a variety of aspects of human nature as well…{we will look at some of this later}… 
There are almost innumerable species in existence within nature. And, within the dynamics of the natural environment, a diversity of phenomena of both competition {limited natural selection} and cooperation {symbiotic relationships} can be observed… 
The study of nature and the physical universe is essentially the realm of the natural sciences. Applications of the natural sciences are, in turn, referred to as technology. 
In addition to the many fascinating things that we may understand in the area of the natural sciences…there are always potentially many more things that we do not understand… Therefore, this is the reason for the saying that we often “don’t know what we don’t know”...meaning that many topics must always exist beyond our current awareness... 
And, many of those things that we do not know are due to the fact that they exist within a frame of reference, and/or at a scale, that is beyond our capability of observation. 



AREA #1.9 
FRAMES OF REFERENCE, SCALE 
AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY… 

As an exercise in frames of reference, and scale, in natural science, let’s consider the following question… 

“Where are we right now…?” 
We might possibly begin to answer this question in reference to some pieces of furniture at our location…for example…“I am sitting at a desk…” 
Or, we might refer to a building…“I am at my house…” 
We might refer to a road name…“I am on such~and~such boulevard…” 
We might refer to a city…“I am in such~and~such city…” 
We might refer to a nation…“I am in the USA…” 
If we prefer more precise navigational terms…we might describe the exact longitude and latitude measurements to our location… 
We can notice that all of the above answers are, simultaneously, correct, although each corresponds to a unique and distinct frame of reference. 

Now, as another exercise in frames of reference, and scale…let’s look at another hypothetical scenario…and let’s say, for example, that we are standing somewhere along the equator of the Earth, and we are standing still… 
And we ask the question… 

“How fast are we moving right now…?” 
Now, since we are standing still we can quickly respond that… 
“We are not moving at all…and so our velocity is zero right now because we are standing still…” 
And this would be clearly correct… 
But now, we can look at the exact same question again, from a different frame of reference… 

“How fast are we moving right now…?” 
And this time…we are able to observe that we are, apparently…adhering to the surface of a huge globe of iron and minerals {the Earth}…and, since we are at the equator in our example, we are spinning around at the almost unbelievable speed of around 1000+ miles per hour…! 
{Note: An individual standing on the equator travels the approximate circumference of the Earth in one 24 hours day without taking a step… 
The circumference of the Earth is approximately 24,800+ miles. 
Therefore the velocity of an individual standing on the equator is approximately… (24,800+miles)/24hours = 1033+ miles per hour, even while standing still… This speed will be somewhat less at higher and lower latitudes, the further the individual is from the equator.} 

But now let’s look yet even one more time at the exact same question, in the exact same example… 

“How fast are we moving right now…?” 
Now, this time, we observe that the Earth is racing around on an enormous, somewhat elliptical, and slightly eccentric, orbit around an even much larger massive ball of flaming heat and light, that someone has named the “Sun”...{which actually looks like it's traveling around us, if we didn't know any different}... 
And, moreover, the Earth {and everything on it, including us} is travelling at the even more unbelievable speed of approximately 48,700+ miles per hour…! 
{Note: Some estimates are higher than this. But, one approximate distance of the Earth’s yearly orbit around the sun is 427,000,000+ miles… Therefore the actual velocity of an individual on the Earth, even while standing still, is approximately… 
( (427,000,000miles)/(1 year) )((1 year)/( 365days) )( (1 day)/(24 hours) ) = 48,700+ miles per hour…!} 

Again, from these exercises, we can see that we are able to obtain a variety of different answers to the same exact question, and each of those different answers are in fact simultaneously correct, although each corresponds to a different, unique, frame of reference. As we increase the scale of our frame of reference, we are seeing different dynamics, and getting new numerical results, all of which are approximately accurate. 
A type of methodology for the comprehension, and integration, of various simultaneous frames of reference is one basic aspect of the Theory of Relativity, which was consolidated and developed by Albert Einstein. The concept of “space~time” is an example of this… 
Now, what if we were to expand the scale of our frame of reference to such an extent that we ask the following question… 

“Where is the universe itself…?” 
Now, in this case, we are asking a question that has a frame of reference, and a scale, that is beyond our current ability to directly, empirically, scientifically, observe…and so we do not even really have much of a logistical structure to be able to approach the question, or to perform any experimentation… 
{Often questions of this, and similar, natures are in fact approached in many interesting ways…although many of the theories tend to be, understandably, somewhat incomplete, and/or, based upon the supposition of further speculative constructs that in turn can not be fully validated…} 

One of the main points for us to remember from all of this is that, generally speaking, in almost every single set of logistics…the greater the number of frames of reference that we are able to observe and understand…the bigger, and more complete picture we are going to get…