Greetings, from Louisiana.

Introductions and Personal Notes
1

Figured I should register and drop on in. I’ve creeped for the past two days or so. I am the hogger of Atlas Shrugged; brother to Snow_Fox. Hahaha. (You’ll get the book as soon as I can start reading it again/finish up the ending, summer college courses are only for a little bit longer and then I won’t have any more English Literature class to keep up with!)

Basic junk about me:

I was fundamentally an Objectivist before I started reading Atlas Shrugged, but it locked my views in and reinforced them greatly. Now, I believe that Objectivism is the solution to almost any problem and the cause of most problems is a lack of defining one’s own values and living by them/self-esteem. Hypocrites anger me greatly. I respect Christians or those who follow other religions, so long as they are passionate and serious about them. If they say they believe in God but don’t act the part, I’ll call them out on it. “Only God can judge” is also something that gets me annoyed. If anybody cares to hear me rant on it, ask, but I’m digressing as it is. Hahaha.

I love to work out. I was a powerlifter a few months ago during high school and got second for my weight class in the HS nationals despite it being my first/only year as a powerlifter. I played football before that but quit my senior year as I had four AP classes and grades>>>>football.

I have extreme standards for myself and for who my friends are. I’m disappointed in myself when I make anything less than perfect because I know that a perfect score is always something I can achieve if I work hard enough for it. As far as friends go, be logical or I won’t tolerate your presence.

I’m 18, going to LSU, and majoring in physics. I love the sciences, but if I don’t like physics, I’ll likely go into computer science. I half-way developed a game for the Spring open source engine project when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school but lost interest as I was on the football team; I fell into unrequited love and could no longer do anything creative for a year and a half; and school was actually becoming challenging.

I think I’ve bored you guys with enough personal details, heh.

I’m glad I found this forum. Perhaps my pride won’t be seen as arrogance or big-headedness and my standards won’t be seen as stuck up or conceited here. I am proud of what I’ve done and not ashamed to say it.

Edit: I forgot to ask, does anybody have a sleeveless shirt from http://www.proudproducers.com/index.php ? And if so, could you take a picture of yourself wearing it? I’d consider getting one to workout in but I want to make sure it looks like I think it does (And I don’t trust the “preview” pictures of them, I’d rather a real picture). Objectivism gets me jacked up because I know that my hands are those of the greatest creator, those of the greatest destroyer, and I can accomplish all things through an indomitable will.

2

Greetings and welcome to the forum ( HA! First one to do that … not that it *actually* matters xD).

It is good that you like physics, though do not be surprised if a lot of the “physics” you learn at college is highly rationalistic and taught *very* badly. I dont know what LSU is like and this is not as much of a problem *everywhere*, but something that you might want to keep in mind.

3

Greetings and welcome to the forum ( HA! First one to do that … not that it *actually* matters xD).

It is good that you like physics, though do not be surprised if a lot of the “physics” you learn at college is highly rationalistic and taught *very* badly. I dont know what LSU is like and this is not as much of a problem *everywhere*, but something that you might want to keep in mind.

Congratulations! :stuck_out_tongue:

And yes, I’m aware that my physics teachers will likely teach it terribly. My high school teacher was a joke. When I took the AP test, I figured out that we didn’t even get to anything to do with electricity and that comprised about a third of the test. I’d be surprised that I even got a 2 on it, but I was actually rather confident that I could possibly make up for my lack of knowledge on electricity with my strength in motion, thermodynamics, waves, etc. I was wrong, but that’s okay. I wouldn’t skip the first course anyways. Just like calculus. I am still taking the first course, even though I passed that AP test and could just skip to the next one. I’d rather reinforce what I’ve got.

4

Alright, just as long as you are somewhat aware of what you should expect, though of course I hope things work out a bit better in your case.

There are of course many good resources to counteract this stuff anyway : The Ayn Rand Bookstore has a lot of good stuff , especially by David Harriman. This video is pretty good and I almost *always* suggest this to anyone interested in physics/the philosophy of physics : http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_physics. I have a blog on the subject ( philosophy of physics) , though I need to make some long overdue updates this weekend/over the next week. Or of course, I would be happy to discuss the subject myself, as it is something I am regularly pondering.

5

That sounds really interesting. I’m going to listen to it sometime tonight. I think physics should merely be perception of the world/universe around us and explanation of reality via studies and experiments grounded in cause and effect. Physics is not really physics if it’s just baseless speculation.

6

Bingo. Along with this : “some have said that physics *is* math. This view depends on the confusion that physics can only describe a mathematical abstraction of reality , and that reality itself is not [necceasirly] knowable. Physics is not math, it *uses* math to study *reality*”. This is the sort of error I imagine that you will find mentioned many many times.

7

We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll both be in each other’s company some time in the future and I’ll have some experience with my teachers/instructors by then.

I’ll be a thorn in their side if they offend my Objectivist sensibilites. :wink:

8

Given that I live all the way down here in New Zealand, I would not count on that happening anytime soon :stuck_out_tongue: Especially as I have no definite plans to move to the US anytime soon.

Most of my experience with instructors is that they dont know *how* to teach very well at all. The philosophy of modern education would seem to be seriously stunted ( at least as far as mainstream education goes). I have limited experience with instruction myself, and I know it is not really all that difficult to do a reasonable job if one understands all the essential philosophical issues ( epistemological ones for the most part, naturally).

9

Hahaha! I did not mean in person, I just meant around on the forums. Hopefully, my teachers know how to teach. LSU is supposedly the best university in Louisiana…

10

Welcome to the forum!

I was just down in NOLA walking around the French Quarter last month while visiting my son. Very interesting place but I didn’t see it at night at it’s “best”.

Take care.

11

This video is pretty good and I almost *always* suggest this to anyone interested in physics/the philosophy of physics : http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_physics.

Thank you for mentioning this lecture by David Harriman. I was not aware of it, but I watched it after having seen your mention of it. An excellent and enjoyable lecture, as good lectures are.

12

You are quite welcome. And yeah, it is a very good lecture , which I am quite glad that they made freely available. I can see why too, as it gives a very accurate overview of the problems with modern physics (/science) from an Objectivist POV. There is a good reason why I almost invariably mention this to any newcomer to Objectivism that shows any interest in science and I think that [some] other Objectivists should do the same.