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Originally Posted by photon
Yeah Sean Carroll had a guy on his Mindscape podcast recently that talked about life elsewhere in the solar system that was super interesting and they talk about this briefly.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com...-solar-system/
It’s hard doing science when you only have one data point, especially when that data point is subject to an enormous selection bias. That’s the situation faced by people studying the nature and prevalence of life in the universe. The only biosphere we know about is our own, and our knowing anything at all is predicated on its existence, so it’s unclear how much it can teach us about the bigger picture. That’s why it’s so important to search for life elsewhere. Today’s guest is Kevin Hand, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist who knows as much as anyone about the prospects for finding life right in our planetary backyard, on moons and planets in the Solar System. We talk about how life comes to be, and reasons why it might be lurking on Europa, Titan, or elsewhere. |
I wonder about science a bit. Only in terms of stifling of creativity. Hear me out, because I’m not sure there is a solution.
-Human perceptions are inherently flawed.
-So we create a system to remove these shortcomings and biases in a rigorous, controlled methodology which is science. Good old evidence based, fact based science.
-The self-imposed and strict orthodoxy of rigorous critical thinking and suspicion of new theories or ideas is what makes science special, but also what holds it back.
That high bar we have created- to birth and foster trust in discovery and science, is exactly the same logic and methodology that hold us back from accelerating discovery and thus the conundrum. There may not be a resolution to solving challenges with the inevitable intersection between human nature and idea. We NEED.to know more and act on it for human survival, but we need the best information and processes available to us which is science. Our resource is time, but there’s not enough of it, which suggests our religious bias to science may (probably) need to be eased for human survival and longevity. But the nature of our species condemns this. Thus are we destined to doom anyway?
Random musings. Carry on.