Letters

[Read "Nanotech Angels."]

One cannot judge Salon.com for publishing articles about Kabbalah or other Madonna fetishes. However, to misrepresent such ideological drivel as scientific discourse is misleading and dishonest.

"Nanotech Angels" is filled with nonsensical statements such as "The smaller you got, the more order broke down" or "In its [the universe's] core, it [what is?] is energy, waves, strings." Energy, waves and strings are well-defined scientific constructs with properties that can be described and tested. Furthermore, they are defined in the context of "humankind's way of representing space and time," which H. Lovy thinks is flawed.

Allow me to note the article's main flaw: Nanotechnology is an exciting new field where new and interesting phenomena are observed. However, this in no way implies that the phenomena are not described by our current physical theories. As a matter of fact, quantum mechanics describes objects far smaller than a nanometer or a buckyball. There is nothing magical or "miraculous" about what is observed at the nanometer scale and therefore no need to seek scientific enlightenment from religion. If one wishes to draw parallels with religion, one has to first understand properly the science.

Finally, note another misrepresentation in the article: Buckminster Fuller was not a nanoscientist; he was an inventor.

-- Charles Baroud

[Editor's note: Lovy referred to Fuller as "the inventor of the geodesic dome and an icon of the nanotechnology revolution."]

You look deep enough at the smallest thing and you find "God" energy? What rubbish. Science is based on verifiable, replicable results, and the crucial ability to falsify results. To falsify something in science, using philosopher Karl Popper's explanation, means you can devise a way to show why something isn't true, or real, or significant. For example, if Rabbi Yehuda Berg asserts he has heard the voice of God, instructing him as to the Truth, it is non-falsifiable according to science. We can neither prove nor disprove it. Religion, a belief in God, is based on faith. There are no overlapping magisteria between science and faith, nor any need for them. Examine this article, and the Kabbalists' beliefs, and you'll find they rest on faith, not science. Specifically the faith that any energy is proof of divinity.

It's no accident that they focus on obscure, difficult and cutting-edge energy research, since religion has utterly failed, after thousands of years of determined efforts, to attach itself to everyday energy: gravity, heat, electricity, etc. They swarm into new energy research where they can speculate endlessly -- at least until that area of science has matured enough to test speculations and identify wishful thinking and bunkum for what it is.

-- Greg Correll

As a professional physicist, I have seen my share of poorly written articles on science-related topics. But the article "Nanotech Angels," by Howard Lovy, struck me as particularly incomprehensible. Written in a haphazard style, it starts to touch on subjects but then veers away. For example, the author seemingly starts to discuss quantum mechanics, the scientific underpinnings of nanoscience. But instead of coherently explaining this theory, the author says that it was all discovered by Kabbalists long ago. That may or may not be true, but the article does not say anything about it besides that it's the "same basic idea." The author, having not said anything interesting about quantum mechanics, then turns to Cantor's infinities. "His formulas took mathematics and humanity to the next level." OK, what does that mean? To be clear: Although Cantor's theory is deep, the name he used (aleph) is not significant. It's a letter. Again, the author does not say anything correct about what Cantor's theory is about. Why are his formulas "superstitious"?

As a final example, the author writes, "The truth is, humanity's way of representing space and time is flawed." Why is it flawed? The author does not say. There is a sense that this is true, relating to physics at even smaller scales than the nanoscale, but that is beyond the realm of this article. On the nanoscale, quantum mechanics explains all observed phenomena with an accuracy (for certain measurements) beyond 10 orders of magnitude. In this sense, it is the most accurate theory in the history of humankind. I would say that our understanding of space and time is not flawed. Although I know little of religion and the Kabbalah, I know something about quantum mechanics and the world on the nanoscale. Usually, accounts I have read that try to link quantum mechanics with religion end up missing the point of quantum mechanics. In general, I believe that something is probably left out of both when you erroneously try to make this connection.

-- Dan Sheehy

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