Hendostan said:

there are a lot of amazing thangs happening all the time. as a scientist, i stay skeptical, and some of this shit is so beyond belief yet empirically proven that it blows my mind constantly. but of course then there are films like "what the bleep do we know" to remind us that the line between science, philosophy, metaphysics, and bullshit is incredibly thin.

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Is there any confirmation of this from academic sources?  Or just that stupid documentary?

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Hobbs said:

Here we are.

"Within the last century, Western science and physics have made a startling discovery. We are part of the world we view. The very process of our observation changes the things we observe. As an example, an electron is an extremely tiny item. It cannot be viewed without instrumentation, and that apparatus dictates what the observer will see. If you look at an electron in one way, it appears to be a particle, a hard little ball that bounces around in nice straight paths. When you view it another way, an electron appears to be a wave form, with nothing solid about it. It glows and wiggles all over the place. An electron is an event more than a thing. And the observer participates in that event by the very process of his or her observation. There is no way to avoid this interaction."

-Mindfulness in Plain English - Ven. Henepola Gunaratana

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That's a very good book, I'm reading it right now. Meditation made practical and easily explained.

DieCommie said:

Hendostan said:

there are a lot of amazing thangs happening all the time. as a scientist, i stay skeptical, and some of this shit is so beyond belief yet empirically proven that it blows my mind constantly. but of course then there are films like "what the bleep do we know" to remind us that the line between science, philosophy, metaphysics, and bullshit is incredibly thin.

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I have to say, I think you are wrong on both accounts here. 

Quantum theory is arguably the most successful and empirically supported theories man has ever invented.  Quantum Electrodynamics accurately predicts observed properties to 12 decimal places of accuracy.  This is far more accurate than even "The earth is round" theory.

Secondly, "What the bleep do we know" doenst really remind us much about anything.  It is not a representation of quantum theory at all, its is an interpretation with out justification and I believe just unnecessarily confuses the viewer. 

edit - On second read, maybe I misunderstood what you were getting at with "what the bleep..." 

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yeah i think you misunderstood, i didn't write very clearly

i meant to say, quantum theory is one of those completely non-intuitive ideas that has absolutely been empirically proven, and that's what blows my mind. its completely out of the range of our daily experience. so many scientific revolutions had to occur before the human brain could even formulate the thoughts necessary to hypothesize about quantum physics, and yet it defines our existence. cool shit.