Three Strikes Against Humanity

This evening I finished watching a debate on evolution vs. intelligent design.  The lively debate featured many of the heavy hitters in the discussion; I thoroughly enjoyed it.  For those interested in that particular discussion, you can find the first of eight parts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT3NZTGCtrI&feature=related.

As I often do when watching debates, I imagine I'm arguing against each speaker.  In this particular debate, I was thankful I wasn't arguing against any of the speakers.  All of them seemed highly intelligent and incredibly educated on the topic.  I thought how I'd just have to sit and listen to each one and rather helplessly ask questions from time to time.  In the end, it can only come down to what evidence I find most compelling.  When I've made a decision on a given side of the argument, the opposition may pepper me with questions I can't answer, but I'd be left with only, "Well, I found this idea and/or fact more compelling."  There's little anyone can do to impact a person's sense of what they find compelling when they're making a decision to give or withhold assent to a proposition.  And to that end, it's a bit discouraging because it seems to me we have three strikes against us.

1. We have a laundry list of cognitive biases, ingrained heuristics, and social and emotional barriers that impede us from fairly and logically weighing and analyzing data.

2. Even if we can get the data input straight, our logical abilities have much to be desired.  We're not nearly as logically skilled as we like to think we are.

3. Even when we get the conclusion wrong, we find a way to make the observations and/or results fit our conclusions.

To me, this slows me down to making quick conclusions, makes me want to be sure to include the involvement of other people in an evaluation, and creates a more understanding, tolerant response when someone else simply disagrees with me.  When someone is not convinced after the data is presented, I'm not sure there's much left to be done save to strive to treat everyone involved with respect.  The occasion will surely arise - as it often does for me - when I represent the side who's been shown the evidence and is not convinced.

Science and Our Lives

"Take a left on Exit 765," says the voice on your cell phone.  "The airport is on your left."  You give your spouse a quick video call on your phone; you both smile at one another from 50 miles away and end the call.  You enter the elevator and head up to the terminal floor.  You check in by scanning your credit card and driver's license, head through security, and make your way to your gate.  You're right on time and board your flight.  You sit back, enjoy the smooth take off  and as the plane breaks over the clouds, you take out your iPad, slide your finger across it to find a good ebook and plug in your head phones to tune out the rest of the world.

Science has impacted our lives in a way that humans from just a hundred years ago could not have even imagined.  For those humans who live in a technologically advanced country, virtually every minute of their lives is impacted by scientific expansion.  In spite of this, there seems to be a large gap between  the technology a person uses and that person's knowledge of the history and underlying concepts of that technology.  It seems the average person's understanding of scientific progress is on par with the discoveries from at least several hundred years ago.

How many of us could begin to explain how a GPS system really works?  How the engine in your vehicle works?  How does your voice and image instantly make it to your spouse's handheld device?  What's going on in that elevator when you press those buttons?  How does that airport scanner find your ticket information?  How did that secure x-ray machine help keep you safe?  How does that plane actually get off the ground?  How does that iPad really work?  How does that sound travel to your ears through a wire?

For most of us, these questions leave us shrugging our shoulders.  More often than not, we don't give any of these questions a second of thought.  We simply expect the technology to work.  We get frustrated if the GPS takes us on a longer route.  We're agitated if the video call has a two second delay between the display and sound.  And heaven forbid the elevator should stop between floors!  To top it off, while understanding nothing of the process, we casually lean back in our seats while we're being shot through the air at 500 miles per hour 30,000 feet off the ground.

                

This gap between our understanding of and participation in scientific advancement is progressively growing.  The number of scientific fields and the pace at which each field is making break-through discoveries is overwhelming.  It's nearly impossible to keep up with it all.

It seems to me, for some people this breach of understanding seems to encourage cynicism towards current scientific discoveries and endeavors.  "How could they possibly know that?"  "They've been wrong so many times before about other things."  "They're just after money."  "It's simply not worth spending the money on this research."  Lately, these types of cynical statements often target fields like medicine, biology, and cosmology.

While entrusting every minute of our lives to the scientific philosophy and the past accomplishments of the scientific community, when scientific conclusions challenge other ideas we hold dear or tap into our fears and insecurities, our default often seems to be a rejection of those conclusions.  I'm not advocating we simply swallow anything that comes from some scientist, but it does seem to me a person in today's world should find themselves embracing the scientific philosophy and giving the conclusions of the scientific community the benefit of the doubt.

Further, many in today's community want to stifle scientific endeavors because of the associated costs.  However, many - if not most - of the discoveries that paved the way for the lifestyle we live today were simply stumbled upon as a result of scientific curiosity; someone pursuing knowledge only for the sake of it. 

                

Here's to encouraging each of us to add a science book to our virtual shelves now and then to get a better understanding and appreciation of how science has brought us to where we are today.  And here's to hoping this culture continues to support scientific advancements to help bring us to a brighter tomorrow.