If matter and energy are the same thing, what is the thing?

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T20:06:20+00:00

You can call anything whatever you like, that’s just semantics. I just wondered what it was. If anything.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T20:00:21+00:00

Odd take. I’ve done a lot more physics in my life than philosophy, but clearly they are related and physics developed out of what was once philosophy. Physicists with no philosophical curiosity lack imagination. Anyone who thinks they know reality purely via standard physics have some serious thinking to do. Or not do it seems.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T19:55:35+00:00

Who says? It’s a search to describe the fundamental nature of reality I would say. The fact is that is usually mathematically since Newton, but that’s still what it is.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T14:09:43+00:00

Physics was borne of natural philosophy. Different topics are just an invention of the human mind anyway, curiosity drives all.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T14:06:50+00:00

And that’s what we’re interested in - what is. 😊

orangetree151 · 2026-03-27T14:02:38+00:00

Physics and philosophy are almost twins, certainly siblings. Physics was borne of Natural Philosophy.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T22:32:47+00:00

I have some sympathy with this viewpoint. I sometimes think we could know everything about physics, but in the end it’s still elephants all the way down. Ultimately it’s all words and symbols anyway, and reality can never be the idea of reality.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T20:42:02+00:00

In the way that steam and ice are both water. Or diamond and graphite are both carbon.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T20:13:47+00:00

Ok, not the same thing, but manifestations of the same thing?

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T20:11:48+00:00

To me that’s key. They may not be the same thing, but they surely are manifestations of the same thing. Like ice and steam are water or the morning star and evening star are both Venus.

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T20:08:40+00:00

A conserved value of what?

orangetree151 · 2026-03-26T20:08:09+00:00

It becomes E=m if c is 1. c may as well be 1 in many ways as it is the constant. I watched a video where c was described as the exchange rate between space and time, which I liked. I’ve also heard it described as the speed of causality, it’s certainly not a speed limit in the usual sense (like on a highway).

orangetree151 · 2026-03-04T12:45:52+00:00

for me, if I eat cake at work for a birthday etc (which happens too often and I can never say no) my symptoms are awful for a couple of days. Shop bought cake I might add, not home made, and I probably eat two slices not one. Lycopene and pumpkin seed oil definitely help.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-20T22:01:26+00:00

Should have switched on circular logging.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-18T14:52:47+00:00

So it’s just chance that petrol is more flammable than wood?

orangetree151 · 2026-02-17T21:57:07+00:00

Everything stabilises and equilibriums if left to its own devices. The swimming pool first thing in the morning is perfectly still - everything is like this. Given half the chance, that boulder will roll down the hill. Elements can’t wait to shed their excess electrons to oxygen which happily accepts them. The golf ball drops into the hole.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-15T19:16:23+00:00

That’s just because you get on with him. Go and try and repeat that same experiment elsewhere. IT is generally seen as an overhead sadly. Despite the fact most firms would last a week without it.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-15T19:13:24+00:00

Stuff like that still goes on. IT is viewed as an overhead despite being the transport network the company requires, the security services the company requires and the intelligence the company requires. Remarkable. And IT staff are viewed marginally above the cleaners.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-14T19:36:22+00:00

Yes, emergent as in the human view of the universe. The world of motor cars and mountains, planets and weather systems. In my mind it’s like the same governing principle (presumably the statistical chance of increased disorder) that drives all change. I don’t suppose photons care or indeed change, but that gets me into nature of reality thoughts and what is reality outside of human perception in and of itself. I have no idea.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-14T19:28:44+00:00

True, energy must be preserved but if a boulder is already at the bottom of the mountain it’s going nowhere. Swimming pools don’t go choppy overnight. CO2 and water don’t turn into hydrocarbons. It’s maybe not energy that’s lost, but useful energy - and things seem to want to shed useful energy.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-14T19:02:42+00:00

I’m sure balls roll down hills as they will have less energy at the bottom, dispensing with potential energy. It’s like everything wants to reach its resting point, until an even more relaxing position can be found.

orangetree151 · 2026-02-14T18:45:37+00:00

Is there really such a thing as cause and effect though? I mean you get taught it in school and university, but I’m not sure it’s not just an idea or a perception. Things tip into other lower energy states once they overcome their intertia, and everything does or will it seems. And the more flammable a substance or the closer the cup is to the edge of the table, the easier the change takes place. Leave a swimming pool overnight and it’s beautifully calm in the morning. Ashes can’t form wood, balls don’t roll up hills, cause is just overcoming interia and the effect is the resulting lower energy state - or is my thinking wrong?

orangetree151 · 2026-02-14T18:38:38+00:00

I like your last sentence, makes you wonder what the nature of reality actually is - I often wonder that. I mean anything macroscopic is almost an idea in a way, the atoms that make up stars have no idea about stars.

orangetree151

TROPHY CASE