I am cutting down on FB so I can devote more time to reading and starting this category Book Reviews.
I have completed reading the book ‘The Beginning of Infinity' and it posited a few ideas worth contemplating. At the onset, the author argued that the dynamic paradigm of thinking is far more superior than stasis. This is made clear throughout human history. The Spartans limited their culture to a specific set of values to sustain the stability and perceived superiority of their military culture whereas Athenians encouraged the proliferation of ideas that led to Athenian progress. Against the demise of Sparta. The Dark Ages was a period of stasis. Religion was the main center of life. Mankind was confined within the dictates of the Church, the ‘I-told-you-so’ kind of reasoning that took a variety of forms: God says so; God wills it; let it be because that is what is meant to be. People were bound by social rules and any deviation from them is tantamount to social isolation and extradition.
Knowledge was severely hampered in those days. Galileo was a prime example. After claiming that the sun was the center of the solar system (as opposed to the earth), he was forced to recant by the Inquisition and treated as persona-non-grata by the Church. Believe it or not, the Church did not rectify its for at least 359 years!
When disasters hit, including the Black Plague, people gathered in churches to pray for protection which actually exacerbated it because it was carried by fleas that thrived and were easily transmitted in crowded venues (much like covid as a pandemic). Obviously, none of these were known then, but perhaps if society wasn’t that restrictive in the formation of ideas, who knows, someone could have come up with a solution in those dark days.
Even today, we still encounter the dogmatic reach of static environments. There are still societies that believe in the containment of the present, or worse, trying to get back to what used to be. Human nature needs change to advance. Change won’t happen without conjectures, criticisms, trials and errors.
An example of the disciplines that showcase this is Physics.
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In the annals of physics, there exists a fascinating anecdote that resonates with the irony of hindsight. It revolves around Max Planck, a luminary in the field, and his advisor, Philipp von Jolly, who, in 1874, imparted some curious advice to the young Planck. Von Jolly, with an air of confidence, suggested that delving into theoretical physics might not be the wisest path. His reasoning? Well, according to him, the vast expanse of theoretical physics had already been explored, akin to a meticulously mapped landscape. (from Wikipedia)
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The poor von Jolly assumed as early as 1874 that everything needed to learn about Physics was already discovered, no need to get into it. He was unknowingly limited to Classical Physics, the Newtonian variety. The new generation of Physicists at that time, including his student Planck and other luminaries like Einstein proved his claim wrong.
Classical Physics was very useful on earth. But it certainly does not rule over the unlimited space of the cosmos or the tiniest particle atoms. The discovery of quantum physics got the world to the moon, precisely calculating space trajectories of rockets, invention of LEDs, lasers, even all modern electronics! Smart phones, watches especially the digital variety, vehicles, computers, medical devices (pacemakers, bathroom scales, blood pressure monitors, cardiac defibrillators) wifi, broadband, fiber optics are pretty much based on the actions of electrons in “semiconductors”.
So much for the final conclusion of von Jolly in 1874!