We have been discussing the problem of what we don’t know.
Here is a fine essay about the uncertainties.
A story about a great Polish mathematician Jacob Bronowski who was a TV series narrator and lecturer.
As a tease for he essay:
He began the show with the words, “One aim of the physical sciences has been to give an actual picture of the material world. One achievement of physics in the 20th century has been to show that such an aim is unattainable.” For Dr. Bronowski, there was no absolute knowledge and anyone who claims it — whether a scientist, a politician or a religious believer — opens the door to tragedy. All scientific information is imperfect and we have to treat it with humility. Such, for him, was the human condition.
I think that’s pretty good, maybe even profound. Agree. I like the uncertainties and unknowns of biology and Lord knows we have no clue about so much.
I remember being taught by a high school science teacher that: “The more you know, the more you don’t know.”
He was making the point that each discovery opens up more questions and more things to study.
Unlike the warmists who chant that science is settled and there is nothing more to be learned. And they are the ones in control…
My dad summed it up nicely with the phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know.” You don’t need to be an expert in higher maths to understand the basics of chaotic systems. Miniscule differences in starting conditions can lead to wildly diverging outcomes. That’s true even of a system where you know the variables and equations perfectly. Add in the facts that we’re not even aware of what variables we may be missing, the equations are approximated based on questionable records, and the “constants” are all estimations and the idea that we can forecast climate in any significant way is laughable. The idea that variables can be averaged out is asinine.
Way too deep for me, Chaoswx, Shrodinger’s cat and the Heisenberg uncertainty concept give me a headache.
I don’t do probability or higher math very well either–biology/medicine is a nice observational discipline, perfect for my limitations.
Not mentioned is Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, another barrier to “complete” understanding.
Charles Battig