On Bullshit in Physics

Aladar Stolmar

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"As conscious being, we exist only in

response to other things, and we cannot

know ourselves at all without knowing

them" Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit

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Table of Contents Table of Contents ......................................... 3

The Atom Bomb ........................................... 6

List of Bullshit in Physics .............................. 8

The Myth of Big Bang and Expanding

Universe ..................................................... 10

The Black Hole Saga ................................... 14

Return to Colliding Atoms .......................... 24

Composite Atom Bullshit ........................... 29

The Math of Bullshit ................................... 32

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"Bullshit is unavoidable whenever

circumstances require someone to talk

without knowing what he is talking about"

[page 66] and since the physics subject

matter includes everything, the much

smaller and much larger than ourselves

reality as well, there always will be

unknown. Nobody will ever really know

what he is talking about regarding the

galaxies or the nuclear structures; therefore

the Physics always will have some bullshit.

The question only how much bullshit is in

the physics and which teachings of the

Physics or Natural Philosophy are

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questionable, not real reflections of reality,

just bullshit.

The groundbreaking work of Harry

G. Frankfurt made me realize that my own

earlier characterization of today's physics

as a pile of non-sense or lies is mistaken. It

is just bullshit: short of lie, not necessarily

deliberate misrepresentation. This

realization calmed my anger and now with

cold head I can make a case for a long

overdue tabula rasa. Let's return to Natural

Philosophy as Isaac Newton defined it - or

go all the way back to Lucretius to describe

the nature of things, because what we are

taken in by – that is just plain Bullshit!

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The more sensational it is the more

likely that it is just bullshit. I will try to

contribute to the theoretical understanding

of bullshit by describing the development

of such commonly spread bullshit like Big

Bang origin and expansion of Universe -

yes, both bullshit - and I will try to point

out the role of secrecy in the development

of bullshit.

The Atom Bomb It is quite understandable that in the

course of development of first nuclear

weapons the dominating role of the

developer nation had to be preserved by

keeping the scientific knowledge secret.

When some non-participant physicist got

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on right track, they had to be deceived. So

the Hydrogen bomb, Hydrogen fusion was

offered. Unfortunately one picked it up so

successfully that within weeks the –

bullshit – nucleo-synthesis was introduced

fueling the stars and generating all the

nuclei.

There is a problem still: one can not

tell the truth about the fact that two

Hydrogen nuclei - protons - never fuse

without being pressured to reveal the truth

about the thermonuclear weapons. The

bullshit is being spread as science: solar -

stellar energetic process, nucleo-synthesis.

The real winner in my eyes is the Big Bang

nucleo-synthesis: at this point one just have

to make an inventory and whatever is

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wrong with the fusion based nucleo-

synthesis is simply fixed by adding at the

creation! Let's call it primordial - just for a

bigger pile of bullshit!

List of Bullshit in Physics Before I'm carried away I shall give a list

of bullshit analyzed here:

1 Big bang creation of Universe

2 Expanding Universe

3 Black holes

4 Stellar nucleo-synthesis based on proton-

proton fusion

5 Composite atom - nuclei composed of

protons and neutrons

6 Dark matter dark energy (Why are you

torturing me?!)

7 Quarks and gluons

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8 Magnetars

9 Strings, brains etc.

10 Iron core of Earth

And just to represent a contrast to the false

bullshit, here is one bonus, most likely true:

Global warming...

I selected these key points from Harry

G. Frankfurt: "bullshit is a greater enemy

of the truth then lies are" - [page 61] "It is

just this lack of concern with truth – this

indifference to how things really are - that I

regard as of the essence of bullshit" [pages

33-34]

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The Myth of Big Bang and

Expanding Universe I read somewhere a statement

sounding like:

“One thing we know for sure that the

Universe was smaller and hotter in the

past” - and it still upsets me. The truth is

that Edwin Hubble was an honest scientist.

He discovered that there are other galaxies

besides our Milky Way by comparing the

sizes of holes burned in the photographic

plates by light from Cepheid variables. He

compared this technique with another

research tool, the than new spectroscopy -

and found a correlation between the sizes

of holes - at the time he used it as a

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measure of distance - and the shifting of

spectral lines - which was used to measure

relative to us velocities of the stars. He

reported his finding that the red shift of

spectral lines increased with the decrease

of sizes of the holes burned in the

photographic plates as he dealt with these

two techniques: the apparent recession

velocity of the galaxies increases

proportionally to their distances from us.

From this honest report two major

bullshit were secreted almost instantly: the

Universe expands with the galaxies flying

apart with proportional to their distances to

us velocities, and - hence - some time ago

they all had to be together, therefore a Big

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Bang happened in the beginning, what

'created the Universe'.

The alternative - simple - explanation

that the photons lose their energy

proportionally to the distance they travel -

favored by Edwin Hubble himself(!) - was

- still is - being fought with furry. Thanks

to Frankfurt's work now I understand why.

Even mentioning the alternative reveals the

fact that who talks about this phenomenon

does not know what the photons are and

therefore he is in an unavoidable situation,

has to bullshit! As long as we learn what

the photons are and if they really lose their

energy while progressing through the

empty space or not - the necessity of

bullshit stays!

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These two major bullshit in Physics

also demonstrate the first cited statement of

Frankfurt: "bullshit is a greater enemy of

the truth then lies are". There is evidence

that the research which would resolve this

question whether the photon looses its

energy during progression through empty

space - or it is permanent, omnipresent,

unchangeable as resulting from the Big

Bang, Expanding Universe theories

(bullshit) is being blocked by the

bullshiters. Considerable funds are spent on

the multiple Big Bangs and mushrooming

universes but nothing on the so-called tired

light, not much even on pure photon

investigation.

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The smearing of these bullshit on

Hubble is such a disgrace that I cannot pass

by without trying to clear his name and

honor him as the greatest astronomer of all

times!

Somehow it is common: the

bullshiters need an honest scientist to point

to as the initial secretor of their favored

bullshit. And they go considerable

distances from the truth in order to find

one…

The Black Hole Saga Let's look at the Black Holes. It was

blamed on Schwarzchild - until his original

papers were published in English on the

internet. In these he specifically stated that

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the collapse of large mass below a critical

volume must be accomplished with an

energy-mass loss, therefore such animals

(called later black holes) should not exist.

I don't want to know who secreted

this bullshit. It is a typical representation of

"this lack of connection to a concern with

truth". As we see, the concern at the real

honest scientists still existed - Hubble,

Schwarzchild - but later some aspiring

shameless epigones twisted their findings

into bullshit.

We still have no idea what is this

substantial quality of things what we call

mass - expressing the inertial and

gravitational properties of things - and is

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there a limit what maximum mass density

can exist. Again, like at the photons, if we

assume that any large – infinite - density is

possible (like infinite unchanged life of

photons for the big bang), then we get a

strange animal, black hole. However, in

reality this just points to the lack of

understanding of mass and photons - and of

philosophical term, determination of

infinity.

We shall understand the infinity as

the assigning any quality to an object

disregard of their real presence, and by

assigning the quantity of infinity we deny

the very quality assigned, allowing so the

comparison, description of groups, which

has entirely different members, and still

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being somewhat truthful. And this

technique is a very useful tool, no

argument there!

Indeed there is a very significant

knowledge of what mass what space

occupies! And surprisingly it points to a

constant: the nuclear mass density. If

combine this density with the Einstein

described space-time deformation by the

presence of mass - using the quantity of

gravitational potential -, then we arrive to

an interesting graph, showing surprising

predictions about the possible mass and

radius connection, already verified by

supernovae and resulting neutron star

observations! And this graph peaks at

around six solar masses, with a clear

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indication of gamma-ray burst energy

outputs and resulting neutron star mass and

radius expectations. You can see this and

many other evaluations at

stolmarphysics.com.

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“Supermassive black holes reside in

the center of each galaxy” - announces this

bullshit the government body, dedicated to

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further our knowledge, NASA ... Well, the

improved observation techniques provide

the evidence: there is a very large number

(remaining at our subject matter I shall say:

a shit-load) of neutron stars buzz around

the galactic center of the Milky Way! Also,

an understanding of the works of

gravitational interactions between closely

packed neutron stars (and I'm not asking

too much, hence the idol, Albert Einstein

pointed out the effect of gravitational field

on everything) predicts the formation of

very large systems of neutron stars. It

shows all the observed characteristics, and

shows no need for the nonsense of black

holes.

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I've been barked at on an

international conference when I asked

about the distinctive characteristics, which

would allow us to find out is there a super-

massive black hole or there is a large

system of neutron stars? The bullshiters

decided ages ago that there must be a black

hole, there is no place for such questions!

The spreading, repeating the bullshit

must have some economic incentives

behind, as driving force. Indeed there are!

One have to pledge allegiance to the big

bang to get funding from NASA or defend

vehemently the "standard model" to get on

tenure tract. This buzz world of standard

model was introduced to cover-up the

insufficient knowledge - necessity of

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bullshit - and to be able to spread rumors:

'He (She) has no respect for standard

model, must be an idiot!' - about just about

anyone who shows some interest in the

truth. Please note: the so called standard

model does not deal with mass, like it

would not be the most fundamental

property of particles or heavenly objects!

I already lamented about the stellar

energetic process, Hydrogen (proton-

proton) fusion based nucleo-synthesis

bullshit. I really should not tell the truth

about it. When we all grow-up and stop

killing each other than we will be able to

talk about it freely. For now let just say that

an equilibrium state on a very large -

cosmic - scale could be resulted from a

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decay-based energetic process. There is a

series of super-massive nuclei is considered

from the known chemical elements up to

all the way to the neutron stars with a

maximum mass of about six solar masses.

Indeed the evidence of neutron stars,

supernovae, gamma-ray bursts all follows

from this true reflection. In the core of the

Earth, in the Sun, the super-massive nuclei

decay into the chemical elements we know

as they float-up to near the surface.

Do I know what I'm talking about or

this is just an other bullshit?! You just have

to believe me I'm really concerned with the

truths!

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Correction! I'm so concerned with the

truths that I ask everyone not to believe

me! Try to find a contradicting fact, please!

Return to Colliding Atoms I hope this illustrates the difficulties

arising from secrecy or in general the

difficulties with physics dealing with much

larger or much smaller things then us.

Without revealing the details allowing

anyone to create dangerous weapons I have

to ask you to believe me. But I could be a

bullshitter, or even a liar who wants to

deceive you! And may be I just want to

make you a bullshitter.

May be we just have to live with the

bullshit instead of Natural Philosophy until

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we all grow-up. The spreading of nuclear

weapons and the ever-increasing danger of

self-destruction may prevent us to tell the

truth. Ever.

There is another alternative. We

can present one coherent representation,

which results in a true reflection. But

how we know that it really connected to

the reality? May be we have to go all the

way back and redefine all of our words

used to reflect the reality. We reflect the

reality existing. The very existence is a

reflection of void and things; the things

have properties, distinct from nothing.

Should we include in a property-less,

pure existing first beginning? As

Lucretius called these no-things,

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elementary units of existence? Which fly

with infinite velocity, has infinitely small

extent in space, they are always and

everywhere, omnipresent - and

omnipotent? Constructing everything of

their collisions?

The smallest elements of everything

are collision events between the first

beginnings? The unit of mass is a

collision event always present in a given

thing? The time fundamental property

could be the fact that the collision events

change, replaced by new collisions? The

measure of time is the comparison of

phases when a selected relative collision

arrangement is returned? The space

denotes the fact that the things are

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constructed of collision events? Since the

first beginnings may change their

directions in the collisions - some

plasticity must exist in order to account

for the observed causality - two prior

connected collisions define a trajectory

of a first beginning. And two such first

beginnings constitute a collision event

therefore the next collision events could

be defined in a system of collisions -

leading to a self-reconstruction, self-

preservation. This very mechanism is

also an explanation of the three

dimensions of space, observed.

Regular collision systems are the

electrons, neutrons, nuclei of atoms starting

with Hydrogen and extending all the way

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to the neutron stars. The difference of

photons from such massive systems is only

the fact that the elements of photons not

always present in the system.

Could a special geometry of collision

system effect a part of itself to eliminate a

collision event or a whole electron and start

a new life with the unwinding of DNA?

Could our thoughts be new creations

of collision events?

Am I bullshitting or telling the truth?

I'm not sure. I know that by going back to

the basics and redefining the fundamental

concepts of space, time and mass I must

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have gotten closer to the truth. Did I miss

something?

Will you accept this as Physics or

will you stay with the bullshit as sold to

you? Even if you know that it is most likely

bullshit and not true, not even concerned

with truth? The indifference of general

public comes in play: “It's over my head! -

I don't care! - What's in it for me?!”

Composite Atom Bullshit That little side-tract I had to take

before introducing the bullshit of

composite atom. It came from experiments

of nucleus destruction: When bombarded,

the nuclei of atoms may release - besides

the most common photons - electrons,

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alpha-particles or nuclei of Helium 4 and

neutrons or sometimes even protons or

Hydrogen 1 nuclei. Indeed all the

observations of nuclei indicate that there is

a homogenous nucleus inside of every

atom, but one needed to secret this bullshit

about the nuclei being composed of

neutrons and protons - just because the

bullshit was unavoidable! It led to major

problems, the necessity of a pile of bullshit

like negative binding energy, quarks and

gluons nonsense, still it lives on for over a

century now!

Since the quantum mechanics went

far from representing the reality – "It is just

this lack of concern with truth – this

indifference to how things really are – that

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I regard as of the essence of bullshit" – it

opened the flood gates before such

nonsense as dark matter and dark energy.

The dark matter was introduced to

account for the galactic velocity

distribution. If we assume that the good old

Newtonian gravitational constant is

universal and constant everywhere -

contradicting in turn to the very principle

discovered by Albert Einstein that the mass

present deforms the space in its

surroundings -, then there is a need to add

substantial amount of gravitating mass to

the galaxies to model the velocity

distribution. Once that leap was made -

anything goes! The nonsense of non-

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baryonic dark matter was floated and

followed closely by dark energy.

Indeed the observed velocity

distribution could be achieved by

modifying the gravitational constant, as

expected from the Einstein discovered

effect of mass present.

Once a nonsense is introduced by

bullshiter it is very hard to get rid of it.

Even Newton had a hard time to fight the

epicycle bullshit...

The Math of Bullshit The problem becomes almost un-

solvable when the bullshit is introduced as

a mathematical solution.

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The dark matter dark energy points to

a mathematical blunder of Einstein himself

and the introduction of gluon and quarks

provided a disguise for the pure

mathematical representation, claiming that

these are the "real" carriers of quantum

numbers...

Once the mathematical exercise

showed some results in describing the real

observed responses the concern over the

validity of claims related to the elements of

mathematical representation was

suppressed. Hence the name Standard

Model was introduced and is being

worshipped by bullshiters.

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Recently there is a fight between the

experimentalists at Brookhaven National

Laboratory and the theoretical physicists.

The results of heavy ion collision

experiments do not support the Standard

Model - but the theoretical physicists

always can add another parameter (Higgs

boson expectation) and fudge their

equations!

As we see, math is an excellent tool

for bullshiters. Dark matter, dark energy,

magnetars, quarks and gluons, strings

(super) and brains all introduced and

supported by elegant - bullshit - math.

Before we get too depressed seeing

the sea of false reflections of bullshit

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physics threatening to drown us lets cheer-

up on the bonus bullshit of global

warming!

When the observed atmospheric

carbon dioxide concentration became

clearly effected by human activity (burning

of fossil fuel to produce electricity) some

felt the need to drum-up support for

preventive measures by introducing a

doomsday scenario of runaway greenhouse

effect and global warming. This is bullshit

because one was talking without really

knowing what he was talking about simply

because the Planet Earth is so complex that

its responses could not be predicted. Yes,

the increase of carbon dioxide

concentration in the Earth's atmosphere is

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real, the recent increase is caused by the

burning of earlier sequestered carbon

containing fossil fuels like natural gas, oil

and coal. The concerned scientists could

avoid the bullshit by reporting only the

facts and not going into telling prophecies!

Why is this urge in physics

to bullshit?

It is simply unavoidable...

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Aladar Stolmar is one of the first Hungarian nuclear

engineers educated in Moscow, USSR. Starting

from 1973 he

developed the

modern atomic

theory and its

consequences on

cosmology and

astrophysics.

On bullshit in

Physics is his

personal reflection

on the philosophical

questions raised by

the current issues in

theoretical physics and a reflection of his fights with

the establishment.