Subject: Re: web sites

From: [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
Date: 26 Apr 1996 20:22:50 -0700

> From: [email-masked] ("Roger Whitehead")
> 
> Subject: Re: web sites
> 
> Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 14:59:06 GMT
> 
> << formalised scientifically in the Gaia Hypothesis. >>
> 
> As eloquent an example of an oxymoron as one could ask for. 8-)

[an eloquent oxymoron is a persuasive contradiction ...]

'Scientific' method involves observation, hypothesis and experiment:

How do you progress from observation to hypothesis 'scientifically' 
without formalising your ideas in order to test them by experiment?

You are right that the Gaia Hypothesis is regarded as 'unscientific' by 
some people (as I said in my original message), but it contains ideas 
that have provoked genuine scientific debate about the relationship 
between the different, interdependent systems that make up our planet.

My point was that perhaps folklore should not be dismissed out of hand 
because it is, after all, largely based on the observation of nature.

	Tony.
--
Dr. A.J.Travis,                     |  mailto:[email-masked]
Rowett Research Institute,          |    http://www.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,          |   phone:+44 (0)1224 712751
Aberdeen AB2 9SB, Scotland, UK.     |     fax:+44 (0)1224 716687

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From: [email-masked] ("Roger Whitehead")
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 20:20:43 GMT

A scientific hypothesis should be open to falsification (that is, 
disproof). How would you go about disproving the Gaia notion?

Roger

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Roger Whitehead,
14 Amy Road, Oxted, Surrey RH8 0PX, England
Tel: +44 (0)1883 713074; Fax: +44 (0)1883 716793
.

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From: [email-masked](Michael L Roginsky )
Date: 1 May 1996 21:05:51 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked]
>disproof). How would you go about disproving the Gaia notion?
Pardon my ignorance Roger. What is a Gaia hypothesis? I am an avionics
engineer........:) Micro.

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From: [email-masked](Michael L Roginsky )
Date: 14 May 1996 20:54:33 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked]
("Roger Whitehead") writes: 
>Well, if you'll accept an (ex) automobile engineer's version.  8-)
>
>As I understand it, the Gaia 'hypothesis' is the notion that the Earth

>itself is an organism - sensate and purposeful - that exhibits 
>homeostasis or some form of self-healing. To me the idea sounds like 
>animism writ large, but it has an appeal to the sentimentally green 
>personality.
>
>No doubt someone will correct me if I have misrepresented the 
>proposition.
>
>Roger
>
Thanks Roger, now I can sleep with ease. Acronyms, you know. Especially
when one crosses from Army, Navy. and Air Force. I will go back and
ponder on quantum again. Micro...Alive and not a microbe!

BTW someone in the TV weather asked a question: how long will it be
until earth will stop spinning....16 million years! That makes me feel
better also. :)Micro.