Science: Difference between revisions

{{a|cosmology|{{image|Newton and apple|png|}}}}For those many reductionists who cleave to the idea that science is a profoundly convergent enterprise: that through relentless experience it converges on [[truth]] we offer this page as a gentle challenge. Scientismists<ref>Those who practice scientism, as opposed to scientists, being those who practice science.</ref> are given to invoking [[Occam’s razor]] to bat away illogical hypotheses of mystic types; the [[JC]] uses it to invite them to practice what they preach.

Modern life to the layperson doesn’t feel quite so incomplete, though, does it? The truth is that scientists making these discoveries are not breaking new ground so much as upend existing ground which other scientists have been been busily tilling, as if ''their'' science was the revealed word of God, for decades. Seen this way, breakthroughs are evidence for the frailty of science; for its susceptibility to change.

*'''Dark matter: Four fifths of the universe is invisible!''' It is no matter of detail that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate: this undermines the basic principles of physics, unless 85% of all mass in the universe is invisible and, but for its gravitational effect, undetectable.<ref>“[[Dark matter]] is hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Its presence is implied in a variety of astrophysical observations, including gravitational effects that cannot be explained by accepted theories of gravity unless more matter is present than can be seen. For this reason, most experts think that dark matter is abundant in the universe and that it has had a strong influence on its structure and evolution.” — Wikipedia</ref>

*'''String theory: lots of tiny dimensions!''' Grand unification of physics appears to require string theory which appears to require  at least 11 — and maybe more! — spacetime dimensions, though since there is no evidence of matter or energy leaking from or being injected into the four we already know about, we are asked to suppose that the other eight dimensions are curled up so tightly that they can neither be observed, nor can the smallest subatomic particles cross into or out of them. <ref>In bosonic string theory, spacetime is 26-dimensional, while in superstring theory it is 10-dimensional, and in M-theory it is 11-dimensional. In order to describe real physical phenomena using string theory, one must therefore imagine scenarios in which these extra dimensions would not be observed in experiments. “Compactification” is one way of modifying the number of dimensions in a physical theory so that the extra dimensions are assumed to “close up” on themselves to form circles. In the limit where these curled up dimensions become very small, one obtains a theory in which spacetime has effectively a lower number of dimensions.</ref> This is a ''lot'' of ad hoc hypothesising just to ge thte maths to work, fellas. The alternative — no less ad hoc — is that the dimensions live in other universes altogether. There may even be [[Multiverse|an infinity of alternative universes]]!