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presents A Lecture by Piet Hut |
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DEGREES OF FREEDOM
| Scientists, phenomenological philosophers, and practitioners of contemplative traditions have much in common. All three of them withdraw in their lab, or study, or cell or cave, in order to scrutinize phenomena under controlled conditions. And all three go out into the field, to compare observations with experiments. While their initial world view may have been very different, in all three cases their world view evolves dynamically in Response to their investigations. This holds out hope for growing interactions and collaborations between them. Hut illustrates this possibility with a concrete example of three world views, in which reality is seen in terms of matter (modern science), in terms of experience (Husserlian phenomenology), or in terms of being (some forms of Asian non-dualism). In all three cases, explorations have resulted in the discovery of new and often very surprising degrees of freedom that are part of the reality we live in, even though they may not have been obvious under everyday circumstances. |
3:00 p.m., November 26, 2001 in EESAT 110
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The lecture is free and
open to the public. 565-2266 or philosophy@unt.edu. |
Hut has been Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton since 1985. His current work in astrophysics is focused on large-scale simulations of dense stellar systems. One aspect of this work is his involvement in a Tokyo-based project of designing and building the GRAPE family of special-purpose computers, designed to calculate Newton's law of gravity at speeds exceeding that of the world's fastest general purpose computers (the GRAPE-6 is currently the world record holder in speed, at more than 30 Teraflops). Another aspect involves data mining and visualization at the Hayden planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he routinely uses the new dome, billed as the world's largest virtual reality simulator, to conduct immersive interactive visualization experiments of star cluster evolution. In addition, Hut is a founding member of the Kira Institute (http://www.kira.org), which has organized summer schools for graduate students on topics such as "Values in a World of Fact" and "Ways of Knowing." |
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CEP - PHIL - UNT - November 10, 2001 |
