"We don't know what 96% of the universe is made of – we don't understand something fundamental" - Professor Brian Cox
I would observe that this fact is true about almost everything. I'm constantly staggered by how little many people know about their own field or chosen path. I made notes on Professor Brian Cox's first program last week on the The Wonders Of The Solar System. Here they are -
The 'Arrow of Time' says the future will always be different from the past. We should know that and hold onto the profound idea of irreversibility. Add to this the second law of thermodynamics - which is basically that - everything tends from order to disorder - thus 'entropy' always increases. Entropy is also a measure of how many combinations are possible to rearrange the constituents of anything. Anything with structure has low entropy. Oh and don't get shipwrecked on he skeleton coast – it is the gates of hell.
A lot of ideas to get your head around. To me it just makes me feel very very small and wanting to make the most of my tiny time here.
Whilst the program probably doesn’t fit everyone's idea of science or experts what struck me was profound. Also that the ideas he expressed were likely to mean a lot to people and sadly not much to many more. Meaningful to those who were ready to find ways of applying the insights to their every-day thinking. This may be remarkably few people. Possibly including me.
But the power of the program did stay with me and made me think.
"Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. Facts and theories are not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away while scientists debate theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in midair pending the outcome." - Stephen Jay Gould
We often get confused and dazzled by our choices when confronted with a challenge to our ego - to our opinions and positions. We defend too much. Surely we are humans - we own our own destiny - rubbish! Whether to say we don't understand – or we would like more explanation – or we should just admit our life is going to be a very short journey of appreciation – a small passage for each of us that we should try and celebrate in some positive way.
So it is with our ability to think.
Last year, when some marginal scientists warned that the Large Hadron Collider at Cern – the £5 billion particle accelerator for which Cox works – could conjure up a black hole that could suck in the entire planet, he told reporters: “Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat.”
How do people think? Where do their prejudices come from?
There is something obvious and yet vital to appreciate about how or whether we each think. Think about that. Having an opinion which defies the receipt of new or better knowledge is just ignorance.The evolution of our ability to think is what life is all about. To reach a mastery in anything takes time and effort. You can see, touch and read and talk and ponder about stuff all you like. Are you processing? Are you discerning?
Are you synthesising Are you doing anything with the data you are getting?
If not.
Stuff – the world and your place in it just won't just click for you – you wont move on. You begin to think only when asked to, told to and when you know you should – this is not thinking - you won't move on. It just won't stick. Your thinking will appear to be very superficial. The obscurity of your lack of thinking will hold you back and drag you down. Your appearance and projection of your thinking will frustrate everyone around you enormously.
But you just don't really get it fully until you are rightly ready.
When that final chunk of awakening to the whole beauty of it dawns. When you are ready and the understanding washes over you - it can take your breath away. Speculate. Accumulate. Formulate. Appreciate.
"Without speculation there is no good and original thinking." - Charles Darwin
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