Knowledge and science – a constantly moving target

Science is full of areas where we know precious little: models of climate, human health, the working of the human brain, the nature and source of life….

What happens when we see revolutionary discoveries or thinking?

Humans are constantly seeking out what is there – how does it work, how are things connected, what can we use knowledge for… Can we make money from it, can we use it to do well?

The development of knowledge is erratic, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes like an epiphany.

The processes of developing knowledge are also tightly controlled and hotly debated:

  • active intervention
  • regimes of knowledge will try to tell you what is right
  • static knowledge – it has been like this for a long time
  • orthodox knowledge – this is right you know
  • accepted truth – this is so
  • economic interests – making money is a big controlling force
  • lack of understanding and acceptance
  • creation of artificial science: studies of social phenomena, ideology, religion, economics
  • research silos: you don’t see the connection
  • academic freedom, free research
  • speculation and hypothesizing is not considered scientific

Opinions and economic, formal power matter. And there are methods as well: Objective, logical, scientific, measurable, repeatable, peer reviewed, guesswork, conjecture. Are scientific – our kind of – methods the only ones allowed?

Methods will evolve, knowledge will be found, understanding will be built, gradually and all the time. And the systems we are part of will evolve too – so there will be no end to what we will find. New curiosities will also arise, as well as new ways of thinking and associating concepts and systems.

This can become very complicated, and developing true knowledge is not a sure thing or straightforward. We have second thoughts about Darwin and Einstein, science searching for God and not finding anything, the thinking of the past coming back, looking for all-pervasive science, searching for spirit and soul, nano-materials – many things are still unknown to us.

Science is structured unpredictability. It is what we know now and by using scientific methods we will gradually know more, changing science. Don’t be angry when we change science, this is how it is.

Surely progress will continue – we will know more and more – science will uncover what there is and if it is there – truly – it has to be accepted. And when we have found out we must try to understand.

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