The century of physics has passed, huge progress of understanding was made, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, practical adoption of many things. We also made the fundamental mistake of making the atomic bomb and using it to kill people.
The chemists are claiming the last century was theirs with huge progress and thousands of chemicals created or discovered, lots of products made possible. Chemistry is now running wild, the all-embracing use of chemicals is starting to hurt us.
Now we are entering the century of biology, or life sciences as it increasingly is being called, where genes, DNA, understanding evolution fully, cloning, designer medicine are coming to us. We will be able to map everything, new methods. We can create new life, new structures never seen. Let us hope it does not go haywire. Why on Earth should we clone sheep and pigs? What is the purpose of new lifeforms when thousands are dying around us? Are we aware of the consequences of what we are doing?
This not only good, it is clearly sad also. The thinking is moving forward, but is far too narrow, it is directed at profit from discoveries, at power from discoveries. The scientists of our world live in silos. They think in silos and they find their solutions and discoveries there. It must be a frustrating world. They know what they are doing, but they have been tied in.
The division of thinking is limiting what we will find, it is too mechanistic, it is too mathematical, the experiments set up are not wide enough, the interaction of forces and elements are not seen, there is no element of cosmos in the work.
This method comes in essence from the Greeks where the foundation was laid for the methods we use today, and has been adhered to ever since. Combining this with strong commercialism we have a locked up science with strong built in limitations. We need to change this, to broaden the field of thinking to add elements that we do not consider today. We need more free thinking, wider activity.
Many Greeks had other visions, more all-inclusive ideas, more holistic, but they were thrown out – eg. Parmenides – and we chose the wrong way forward.
There is only one world, there is only one science really, the specialists are no longer useful, they are drilling deeper and deeper into their silos. We need broader thinking, and must make science less eager to change the world, make it support the systems that run our lives and the Earth’s development.
The basis of all science should be the world we live in and what goes on here, what we can do well here, what is useful to find out here, so we can support life as it unfolds.
So a new broad, holistic focus in science is needed – let us find it – a sustainable world needs it. A true life science – a true cosmological science is what it is all about – understanding the greatness of it all.
