KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE [Power Point presentation]

(PROGRESS OF SCIENCE)

 

1. Most people, I find, especially in India have strange concepts about science and technology (S&T). There are some who think that all evils of modernism have come from S&T, (though often they enjoy the benefits of S&T be it for physical comforts or their own health, wealth etc). There are many others who look at S&T with awe : they think of them almost as magic. What is done by science has to be perfect. There has to be no defect. A top doctor means he should cure every patient. Sometimes we hear of news about mobs breaking hospitals where a political leader is admitted and his/her life is not saved !

2. There are many persons who think that a scientist knows everything perfectly. If one is a “big” scientist, then they expect his/her perfect knowledge in every field. (Many scientists enjoy this ignorance and try to show off their omniscience in every field, get media coverage and also high Govt. positions and patronage !!). But reality is otherwise. Any individual scientist, however, truly great she/he is, is excellent in his/her own narrow disciplines.

Due to growth of science there are thousands of super-specialities within every branch of science and many more develop very rapidly. It is the human collective past and present which advances the knowledge frontiers in science. It is the system of science, which is basically non-hierarchical  and which allows challenges to the existing knowledge bases and therefore opens up new frontiers. Such a process is true of all human equiries when they are not fettered by hierarchies and rigid orthodoxies.

3. The process of expansion or progress of human knowledge (which during the recent centuries is exemplified dramatically by progress of science) is shown in the two figures attached to this short article. First one is titled “Knowledge & Ignorance (Progress of Science”). Let us understand that figures.

4.  When we look at the human beginnings, the forest of ignorance, that is, areas unknown to human beings were very large. Primitive human beings, and later even tribal groups did not know what was Sun or moon and why they come with such regularity. But they started understanding the periods. They understood something about occurrence of rain or food. But they did not know reasons. So about many diseases; death etc. But they also found out which plants to eat, which parts of animals or birds can be eaten. Often in finding these out by practical experimentation, a number of them would have died. But their collective knowledge accumulated. The more they learned, their curiosity grew. They started asking questions about the items they did not know further. This is what is explained in the left side circle of the first figure. The circle is small. But even then forest of ignorance was also very big part of it, going to still larger (equivalent to infinity). Millennia passed by. Especially during the past few centuries human knowledge has expanded a lot.

5. The right side circle is  indeed many thousand times larger than the left hand one. Concentrating on the central circle of these two circles, that is the component of “human knowledge”, indeed of the time of millennia “HUMAN KNOWLEDGE” has grown many many times in size, especially due to scientific methods during the past few centuries. At the present time, it is growing very fast even annually.

6. But what happens to the IGNORANCE? That is what human beings know that they do not know ! If we list all the problems from the front line superspeciality scientists as to what are the still unresolved issues in their fields, they will also equally large – perhaps even larger. Yes, in fact the frontline research topics come from these unresolved questions listed by best of the minds which have detailed knowledge of their superspecialities. This collective ignorance of humanity is the rich field of frontline scientific research and future discoveries. Thus the “Ignorance” of the most knowledgeable person paves way for new knowledge. (Look at history of science in detail. This is the pattern.)

7. Let us now see the second figure. First bullet in the figure expresses what we have explained in the earlier paragraphs. What happens is that most knowledgeable person – physicist, chemist, bioscientist, or economist etc – will not yet understood. If one asks about the safety of an aircraft, she/he will not promise “foolproof” arrangements. She/he can say about probabilities. Similarly she/he (medical person) will not guarantee recovery of a patient admitted; she/he will do the best efforts, consult other specialists if required but will not say, “since you have come to us, don’t worry. Patient will recover fully!” They know the real level of knowledge and the uncertainties (due to not knowing some elements yet – not just at their levels but collective human knowledge at a given period).

8. Scientific (& in fact human) knowledge progresses through this dialectic process – lot of knowledge come in – also comes in new areas of unknown territory – you clear them through individual collective human effort – never knowledge – yet new unknown areas.

9. But unfortunately many persons do not know this. Therefore persons with little knowledge make strong, definitive statements. Many will attack knowledgeable persons. This is taken as “freedom”. Such people (with little knowledge) look so certain and therefore many take them as decisive and clear. Often some scientists succumb to this mode, as they can become instant heroes especially in country like ours where social spaces available are still not many. Therefore, those who desire quick fame (and sometimes money) resort to unscientific methods to create temporary euphoria.

10. After I finished this writing, I came across a quotation from Bertrand Russel :

       â€œThe whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts”.

        How expressive ?

11. So think for yourselves when you hear an assertive statement about a complex problem or a not well understood issue.

 

Y S Rajan

23/12/07