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How unstable is science? People often claim that
“Just as the theories of Ptolemy and Newton seemed perfectly satisfactory for centuries, so too our most cherished theories will one day be supplanted.” (David Wootton, The Invention of Science)
Really? Consider biology:
“Just as the theories of Ptolemy and Newton seemed perfectly satisfactory for centuries, so too our most cherished theories will one day be supplanted.” (David Wootton, The Invention of Science)
Really? Consider biology:
For millennia people speculated about how sex leads to reproduction. We now have the answer. Haploid sperm and egg fuse to produce a single diploid cell from which an adult organism develops. That answer isn’t going to change. We figured it out.
We figured out that organisms are made of cells that carry chromosomes made of DNA. DNA functions serving as a template for regulated transcription. The inheritance of chromosomes underlies patterns of genetic inheritance. We figured it out, that answer won’t change.
Same thing for our basic ideas of chemical bonds, the composition of the solar system, and continental drift. We have a basic answer that won’t change.
As Sean Carroll says:
“There’s no question that the human goal of figuring out the basic rules by which the easily observable world works was one that was achieved once and for all in the twentieth century.” https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/09/23/the-laws-underlying-the-physics-of-everyday-life-are-completely-understood/
“There’s no question that the human goal of figuring out the basic rules by which the easily observable world works was one that was achieved once and for all in the twentieth century.” https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/09/23/the-laws-underlying-the-physics-of-everyday-life-are-completely-understood/
That claim is also true of biology and chemistry. But because of the ‘pessimistic induction’ or a failure to consider the difference between quantum gravity and molecular biology, many philosophers and historians continue to make claims like Wootton’s above. That claim wrong.
There are plenty of unknowns to keep scientists busy - the immune system is hard to figure out! But rather than expecting science change as dramatically as it has over the past 200 years, it’s more likely that we’ve figured out the big picture at the level of molecules and cells.
As Sean Carroll says
“But getting the basic laws right is an extremely impressive accomplishment, especially for good old human beings who have only been doing science systematically for a few centuries. Way to go, human beings!”
“But getting the basic laws right is an extremely impressive accomplishment, especially for good old human beings who have only been doing science systematically for a few centuries. Way to go, human beings!”
