In unseen worlds, science invariably crosses paths with fantasy.
BY PHILIP BALLILLUSTRATION BY MIKO MACIASZEKMARCH 6, 2014
"Scientists, of course, are not just making things up, while leaning on the convenience of supposed invisibility. They are using dark matter and dark energy, and (if one is charitable) quantum many-worlds and branes, and other imperceptible and hypothetical realms, to perform an essential task: to plug gaps in their knowledge with notions they can grasp.
These makeshift repairs and inventions are needed if science is not to be derailed or demoralized by its lacunae. When this happens, it seems inevitable the inventions will take familiar forms—they will be drawn from old concepts and even myths, they will be “mysterious” particles or rays or even entire imagined worlds, replete with inhabitants. These might turn out to be entirely the wrong concepts, but they make our ignorance concrete and enable us to think about how to explore it."
No comments:
Post a Comment