The recent advances in scientific theory are interesting to a non-scientific observer with a passing interest in the subject. I pretty much get, in a very basic way how chemicals interact to form compounds, how genetics works at a basic level to explain variation and evolution, how physical systems work to create an atmosphere and the shape and position of continents, and the basics of thermo-dynamics and the laws of motion, that kind of thing, and I’m quite content with that position. I like to learn new things and to understand how the World works but it seems that most of the recent discoveries and theories are beyond the grasp of all but the most highly educated and knowledgable. Famously I recall hearing an interview with one of the top theoretical physicists in the World and he was asked if it was true that there were only five people in the World who understood his latest theory. His response was, after a period of silence, “I’m trying to think who the other four might be”.
This is, to me a bit of a nonsense. There used to be an idea in Mathematics that a solution to a problem, no matter how complex, would be elegant and refined, and that if it wasn’t then it probably wasn’t the correct answer. The opposite seems to be the case in physics with leading thinkers seeming to revel in their lack of comprehension or comprehensibility. Now there are plenty of people who will say that this is not a major problem because the areas that they are studying and theorizing about, multiverses, superstrings, chaos theory and the like are so rarified that they have little if any impact on our day to day life, but I can’t bring myself to agree with this, and there are two coer reasons why not.
The first is that there is a tendency in science for new discoveries to be made simply to increase understanding and knowledge, but once a discovery is made there is nothing to stop someone else taking that discovery and using it for destructive purposes. We only have to think of the splitting of the atom, or work on genetics and eugenics to see this in action. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is impossible to put back in. This becomes even more of an issue if the people making these discoveries are not certain themselves of what the implications of their actions are. Another comment that is often bandied about is “They were so keen to see if they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should”. To give another example let us consider the controversy over genetically modified crops. Here we see a scientific idea, the ability to genetically modify food crops to increase yield and disease and pest resistance, and these crops are being grown around the World without a clear consensus on whether this is a safe thing to do or not.
The second issue is perhaps of even greater concern to me and it comes down to how the general public react to the apparent attitude of scientists. If scientists are presenting fairly radical theories it appears that a knock on effect is that pretty much anything becomes possible in the mind of the populous. This leads to the rise of crackpot ideas like free energy, anti-gravity, superfoods and the like and some of these can end up having significant consequences. There have already been cases of people being encouraged to pursue diet regimes that have a basis in pseudo-science resulting in malnourishment and serious damage to health. There have been numerous examples of people being scammed by intelligent sounding claims for scientific breakthroughs that were in fact nonsense. If we have a position where modern science has stopped making sense to people then it makes it far easier for old style snake oil salesmen to ply there trade, and that much harder for Joe Public to be intellectually discerning…..
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