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jects singled out by Newton-falling bodies, the pendulum,
planetary motion-were simple. We know now, however, that
this simplicity is not the hallmark of the fundamental: it cannot
be attributed to the rest of the world.
Does this suffice? We now know that stability and simplicity
are exceptions. Should we merely disregard the totalizing totalitarian
claims of a conceptualization that, in fact, applies
only to simple and stable objects? Why worry about the incompatibility
between dynamics and thermodynamics?
We must not forget the words of Whitehead, words constantly
confirmed by the history of science: a clash of doctrines
is an opportunity, not a disaster. It has often been
suggested that we simply ignore certain issues for practical
reasons on the grounds that they are based on idealizations
that are difficult to implement. At the beginning of this century,
several physicists suggested abandoning determinism on
the grounds that it was inaccessible in real experience. 4 Indeed,
as we have already emphasized, we never know the exact
positions and velocities of the molecules in a large system;
thus an exact prediction of the system's future evolution is impossible.
More recently, Brillouin hoped to destroy determinism
by appealing to the commonsense truth that accurate
prediction requires an accurate knowledge of the initial conditions
and that this knowledge must be paid for; the exact prediction
necessary to make determinism work requires that an
"infinite" price be paid.
These objections, while reasonable, do not affect the conceptual
world of dynamics. They shed no new light on reality.
Moreover, the improvements in technology could bring us
closer and closer to the idealization implied by classical dynamics.
In contrast, demonstrations of "impossibility" have a fundamental
importance. They imply the discovery of an unexpected
intrinsic structure of reality that dooms an intellectual
enterprise to failure. Such discoveries will exclude the possibility
of an operation that previously could have been imagined
as feasible, at least in principle. "No engine can have an
efficiency greater than one," "no heat engine can produce
useful work unless it is in contact with two sources" are examples
of statements of impossibility which have led to profound
conceptual innovations.