JORDAN PATTERSON
Special to The Leader
The great unknown of the human experience and scientific awareness will be discussed today at noon in Williams Center room S204.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is a monthly panel that gathers interesting people with important topics and gives them a platform to talk to students and the community. The lecture series will be hosting three Fredonia professors discussing different aspects of time and the ever-expanding knowledge of science. Dr. Michael Grady of the Physics Department and Dr. Neil Feit of the Philosophy Department will speak first, followed by Professor Megan Urban of the Visual Arts and New Media Department.
Grady will be speaking about his own theory that was published in the Feb. 13, 1999 issue of New Scientist magazine in the United Kingdom. Grady is questioning “whether the present is a special place or not.”
During his presentation he will detail his phase-boundary theory that tries to explain our origin and our present. He believes that “in four spatial dimensions, it was originally like a liquid and then a crystal started growing out into the liquid and my idea is that we are living on the surface of that growing crystal.” He also explains that “that surface is actually what we call the present and the inside of the crystal is the past which is basically solidified because the past, we think of is sort of fixed and the outside which is the liquid, which is pretty much chaotic and fluctuating, is the future.”
Feit will follow Grady’s presentation with his own 15-minute lecture. Feit and Grady’s talks are actually linked.
“I got involved when Dr. Grady suggested that I participate. I think the original idea was to showcase his phase-boundary theory in physics, and he knew that I was familiar with some of the philosophical background,” said Feit. Feit will be coming at the talk from a philosopher’s point of view.
When describing what his discussion will be about, Feit said, “One way to get at the topic is to consider how time compares to space. Space itself seems to be static – it doesn’t move. However, time seems different — it seems dynamic and it seems to flow. Also, with space, there is nothing fundamentally special about where we happen to be — ‘here’ is not a privileged place in space. But the ‘present’ in time does seem fundamentally special, with past and future seeming somehow less real. We will be talking about this contrast and related issues.”
Urban will follow with her own presentation that will change the topic from “nature of time” to “science as faith.” Urban is discussing the benefits of expanding scientific knowledge and the compromises that come with it.
She emphasised that she isn’t “anti-science,” stating that she definitely is more of a “science groupie,” but she will be discussing the “muddy history” of nuclear experiments and scientific research. She believes that “there are questions that need to be asked and remembered,” and “if you want an answer bad enough, you’re not going to question as much how you’re getting it.” She will also discuss specific historic events and use art that directly relates to her presentation.
“I have learned a lot from the brown bag sessions that I’ve attended, and I wish I could see more than I actually do,” said Fiet, speaking on the importance of the Brown Bag Discussion Series. “I think it’s important to get a sense of what kinds of issues faculty on campus are working on, and if there is a common theme that can unite the work of people from different fields, that’s great.”
While all three expressed the positive of these discussions, Feit and Grady mentioned the level of difficulty of only having 15 minutes apiece to talk about their topics.
“It makes you think about time and how often do you think about time?” Grady said when asked about the importance of his discussion. “It’s good to take some time out of your day to think about things you take for granted,” and “that we can make more sense out of the universe.”