uwot wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2017 5:11 pm
Hobbes' Choice wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2017 4:11 pmGravity does not "work". It is a descriptor by which humans condense a set of appearances that reflect a property of reality.
Matter has a tendency to move towards other matter. That is it. There is no explanation. It's just a fact. You can dress it up with as much description and detail as you like; it matters not what you call it; its just like it is.
There are plenty of physicists who are actively trying to discover the mechanism that produces matter's "tendency to move towards other matter." It is true that there is no consensus; some people are content with Einstein's model of warped spacetime; others think it might be the exchange of particles called gravitons and there is a whole raft of other hypotheses. It is also true that the fact that we don't understand the mechanism is no impediment to our using Newton or Einstein as mathematical descriptors, but our not understanding the mechanism, doesn't mean there isn't one. What you are suggesting is a 'spooky action at a distance' of the gaps. That or Aristotelian teleology.
On the contrary. Those who insist on a distinct force of "gravity", are suggesting a teleology. My take on it is quite the opposite.
In fact your language demands that teleology. When you say "we don't understand the mechanism", you are implying that there is a distinct mechanism whose purpose is to make things fall. I'm simply saying that the entire idea of "gravity" is a human interested narrative in which the universe is seen as a designed set of interactions that have a job to do.
We can never know what the universe is really like, though we can extend our perception of it with clever machines, all these show is that we have a very idiosyncratic and partial view of reality and gravity is among the limited conception. Gravity is over important since humans are pissed off about falling over and hurting themselves, or falling out of the trees where we, not long ago used to live.
The question should be more like. What are the things about the universe that urge us to take an interest in what we like to call gravity. The universe does not give a damn about gravity and does not recognise it as any kind of discrete force. What Einstein hints at is that it is but one aspect of the fabric of reality but not distinct from it, part of space/time and not a part from it. But by such things humans are err to categorise, and reduce.