Regarding the infallibility of scientific certainties, ironically, the one thing we can be almost certain of about any scientific theory is that it is wrong, in some subtle but fundamental way yet to be discovered. Take the queen of the sciences, for instance: physics. Newtons Principia was a phenomenal triumph of scientific precision, inventing (simultaneously to Leibnitz) Calculus for the purpose. As scientists looked at the world and universe, the microcosms and macrocosms, with increasing precision through this lens, anomalies accumulated, eventually yielding a paradigm shift, in this case in two mathematically incompatible directions at once: Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. (Many people dont know that the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory are mathematically mutually exclusive; they cannot both be absolutely true at the same time.) More recently, String Theory has started to assert itself as a possible replacement for Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, reconciling the two by proving them both wrong and explaining in a single theory what they each explained separately. Science is an onion whose layers we are peeling away, not an accumulation of stagnant truths. As a scientist, the one thing you can be most certain of is that you will eventually be proved wrong. Heres a fantasy-fictionalized rendition of Kuhns model of paradigm shifts:
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 02:59:12 +0000
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