Comments on, "The Greek Atom and Quantum Mechanics"
         ___________________________________________________

                      Bill Peria

                      Department of Physics
                      University of New Hampshire
                      Durham, New Hampshire 03824
                      bill.peria@unh.edu

                    (received: September 1, 1994)


     I just finished reading your article ["The Greek Atom and Quantum
Mechanics", Metaphysical Review - August 1994]. It's interesting to think
about that stuff sometimes, although I sure don't now as much as I
used to. I find myself thinking the Greeks were maybe a little loony,
and siding with *both* Einstein and Bohr on issues of falling trees,
moons, sounds and the like. 

     To say that 'measurement is everything' seems, among other
things, conceited! I doubt very much if our interactions with the
universe are all that crucial to its nature. On the other hand, I've
also found that the failure to appreciate that what we're *always* doing
is, in some sense, measuring, can rob one of a beautiful vision of the
mystery of our world.  Seeing is receiving light in our eyes,
smelling is the actual arrival of stuff (whatever its nature) in our
noses. To realize these things intuitively is a useless complication
as far as survival is concerned, but crucial to the way I, and I
assume other physics types, view the world. To have a sense of what it
means to 'look' at the things around us gives you a front row seat at
the ultimate show, a dance of scales large and small both beyond
imagination. From the stupefying emptiness of interstellar space to
the breathtaking organization in every living thing, the unending
woven threads of whatever is going on here can best be appreciated
when we understand, at the deepest and most immediate level, how it is
that we sense the things around us. "Measurement" is not really the
right word, since it evokes labs and detail freaks  with thick
glasses and pocket protectors. The marvelous ways in which we gather
the news of our surroundings, from the direct senses to the forbidding
webs of inference of modern science, are all a vital part of what we
are. 

     Perhaps an example would give more meaning to all the snazzy
words. Many of us have, I hope, been out on a clear dark night away
from city lights and seen the Milky Way. It's very pretty to look at.
It's more than just that, though. The light you see is from
stars too distant to resolve, too numerous to miss. Try to imagine how
many stars it must take to make that gentle glow. Since long before we
were born, that light has been on its way to meet us here. Feeling
these things enriches life. Without them, the Milky Way is just
another pretty light in the sky. 


						Bill Peria