Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein swayed the 1921 Nobel committee

Re:Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein swayed the 19... by mannykannot on Friday May 06, 2016 @07:47PM (#11647545)

Einstein has been described as a philosopher, and in a way he was - one of a new kind, both able and unafraid to follow reason through a veil of paradox into a disorienting world of postmodern uncertainty. It was an inflection point for philosophy, which could either follow Einstein or sink into self-referential introspection. Bergson had no clue as to what was happening.

Einstein himself stumbled over quantum mechanics, but there were others to lead the way.

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Re:Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein swayed the 19... by spacehome on Saturday May 07, 2016 @03:48AM (#11648767)

I think Einstein did pretty well with quantum mechanics, as judged against his contemporaries. At least he knew something was wrong with the statistical/Copenhagen view. I think if he were told the Many-Worlds interpretation, he would find it beautiful and in line with what the character of natural law is supposed to look like.

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Re:Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein swayed the 19... by frozenport on Saturday May 07, 2016 @05:16AM (#11648930)

The opposition didn't feel rational. For example, the EPR paradox was presented as a failure of quantum mechanics, when quite the opposite was true - and indeed quantum entanglement has been proposed for commercial applications. Simply put, in his later years people were already using QM to solve real world problems, while he was telling them their theories were wrong.

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Re:Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein swayed the 19... by spacehome on Saturday May 07, 2016 @12:16PM (#11650142)

Well, the theories were wrong. History has been kind to his viewpoints.

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