Den självbiografiska romanen Michail handlar om vänskapen mellan den rumänske författaren Panait Istrati och den ryske adelsmannen Michail Kazanskij. När de möttes i början av 1900-talet var Michail utfattig och arbetade som hjälpreda till en sockerbagare i Istratis födelsestad Braila. Michail är sluten och hemlighetsfull, men tinar gradvis upp i samspel med den impulsive och [ ] The post Te och…
Phoolan Devis självbiografi är för mig en klenod. Jag minns fortfarande när jag köpte den i bokhandeln vid järnvägsstationen i Lund år 1996 då den nyss kommit ut i svensk översättning. På svenska heter biografin Jag, Phoolan Devi – Min egen berättelse. Den ger uttryck för en elementär livsinstinkt, en bultande kraft som omöjligt kan [ ] The post Phoolan Devi: en legendarisk indisk banditledare och…
In early spring 2011 I had finally decided to devote a considerable amount of time to find a philosophical perspective from which the structure of physical law could be more clearly understood. For some years, it had been clear to me that such a perspective could and should be found, and that it should be [ ] The post My work seeks a harbour outside myself appeared first on Tankar .
I upptakten till finanskraschen år 2008 steg oljepriset mot skyn. Min oljepanna slukade olja för 35 000 kr per år. Bergvärme var för dyrt för mig, men jag hade nätt och jämnt råd att installera en luft-vatten värmepump. Den passade väl ihop med de stora gamla värmeelementen i huset. Jag kände mig lokalpatriotiskt stolt när jag [ ] The post Den gröna industrirevolutionen i Småland appeared first on…
Ernst Stueckelberg came up with many of the most fundamental ideas in 20th century theoretical physics but got little recognition. Stueckelberg was a modest man who struggled with life. The post He s not so easily stopped uttering his prophecies appeared first on Tankar .
I somras besökte jag vattenkraftverket i Tyssedal och den närbelägna lilla staden Odda, längst in i Sörfjorden. En för mig okänd svensk visade sig vara en omtyckt centralgestalt i ortens historia. I februari 1906 seglade ingenjör Albert Petersson in i Sörfjorden och insåg att Odda var den perfekta platsen att anlägga en karbidfabrik. Orten [ ] The post En sympatisk svensk industripionjär i Norge…
It takes two to tango. We are interlocked in a dance with the world we see around us until death. If the universe is deterministic, the observed world leads the dance and the observing being follows. But, according to modern physics, each dancer can surprise the other with unexpected moves, taking the couple to parts [ ] The post To tango with the world appeared first on Tankar .
Everything has to be based on observation, provided observation is understood correctly. Observation includes grasp of essence, which is simply left out of what is called experience most of the time – in particular, by the empiricists. Kurt Gödel [1] This blog post was originally submitted to the FQXi Essay Contest 2020. Introduction This essay [ ] The post No mathematics without mathematicians,…
This is an English translation of a blog post in Swedish published in 2017. A summer day in the mid 70s I was sitting in my parent’s Volvo PV outside a public swimming pool in our home town Lund, Sweden, listening to the radio. My big sister attended swimming school. The voice on the radio [ ] The post The fear of the black tide of mud appeared first on Tankar .
(to myself and others) Michel de Montaigne: The frontiers of our research are lost in dazzling light. Plutarch, writing of the fountain-heads of history, says that when we push our investigations to extremes, they all fall into vagueness, rather like maps where the margins of known lands are filled in with marshes, deep forests, deserts [ ] The post Words of warning and encouragement appeared…