Uniting Science And Technology
A common problem in modern science is inaccessibility. Things are either too big, small, or abstract to experience firsthand. Lots of really interesting science falls into these three categories. This helps to build our enthusiasm for this crazy universe. It also raises a key question: why should we believe what scientists tell us?
Science contains many complicated relationships. Truth and falsehood. Fact and belief. Evidence and faith. If the history of science shows us three things, they are:
Truth is a dinghy in an ocean of falsehood
Objective facts are stubborn and slippery. Subjective beliefs are a dime a dozen
Having faith is as easy as sliding down a ramp. Finding evidence can be like climbing Everest
There has always been skepticism about science. In many cases, it's warranted. Corporations fund studies to affect public opinion. Con artists make false scientific claims to sell their products. And crucially, our understanding of the world undergoes radical shifts over time.
We no longer think that Earth is the center of the universe. We explain storms with computer simulations, not as the wrath of gods. The Ancient Greeks thought that everything was composed of just four elements. People use examples like this to justify going against modern scientific evidence. This is dangerous. It can be deadly, on topics like climate change or vaccinations. We need to arm ourselves against this danger. To do so, it's important to remember what science actually is. We need to know why it's valuable. We also need to understand why we should trust proper science.
What is Science?
The scientific method involves several steps. A hypothesis is chosen. Then experiments are performed to test the hypothesis. Finally, evidence is compiled to prove the hypothesis either correct or incorrect. Those last three words are italicized because they are crucial to the success of science. Science removes as much of our bias as it can. It does so by opening us up to the possibility of “false belief.”
Why do we choose which hypothesis to test? We think that we know how an experiment will result (ex. A stone will sink). However, unexpected outcomes often occur (ex. The stone floats). Then we have to reconsider our understanding of stones. Our choice of hypothesis shows that we held a certain understanding of stones. Our experiment/evidence proved this to be false. We have learned something new about stones.
This process of learning from false belief gets at the main issue of how science is misunderstood. The evil corporation and con man above aren't actually doing science. They're corrupting their evidence to match beliefs that they know are false. They exploit our confidence in science to market their products. Being wrong is bad for business, but it is the lifeblood of scientific progress.
Why Trust Science?
So science is effective because it opens us up to the possibility that we're wrong. Yet we're looking for a reason to trust it. Trusting something because it can prove us wrong isn't exactly a reasonable thing to expect people to embrace. Luckily, we have thousands of examples in our lives to give us evidence that the scientific method gets results.
Most of us derive our primary value from science through its application. Discoveries lead to the creation of new technologies. Electricity lights our homes. Combustion engines power our cars. Microprocessors speed up our laptops. All three of these technologies have their roots in lab science, in experiments testing hypotheses. It’s often effort to get excited about the ‘unapplied’ side, but the struggle is understandable. Technology is when science becomes practical for non-scientists. It's our chance to gauge the value of a scientific discovery.
Consider your cellphone. Every time you make a successful call, stream a video, or iMessage a playlist to someone, it should give you confidence in the scientific method. Why? Because the technology that lets you do so is rooted in labs. All of these functions work because of our understanding of the underlying scientific principles. The improvement of your phone's capabilities mirrors the refining of our understanding of the universe. Streaming pornography is, in a roundabout way, a reflection of our mastery of electromagnetism.
Leaving Ourselves Behind
This brings us back to our previous philosophical discussion. Science deals with truth as objectively as possible. This battle for objective truth is the battle for facts supported by evidence. We need only examine our own thoughts to see how many false beliefs we hold.
I am constantly afraid of birds flying into me. This has never happened to me. All of my evidence points to the fact that birds don't view me as a kamikaze target. Fighting off this irrationality is difficult, but we are constantly doing it subconsciously. Most of us step on to planes with only a little anxiety. We cross roads as speeding cars screech to a halt. We push buttons and expect to hear our mother's voice on the other line. This is the confidence, the dare I say faith, we have in science. This faith is buoyed by technology. Fighting the irrationality is what opens us up to possibilities. We can then indulge ourselves in the mysteries of the massive, the minuscule, and the meta.
It should be noted that every technology comes with the potential for both good and evil. However, what happened in Hiroshima and Auschwitz shouldn't shake our confidence in science. It should shake our confidence in people at war. Science is not the emotionless madman plotting in his lab. It is the curious god gazing at lightning through a child's eyes. It is our attempt to take ourselves outside of these needy, jealous, human brains and bodies. We must do so to get a glimpse of the literally unbelievable universe that we share.