New scientific discoveries in astrophysics and archeology make the notion of “settled science” risible. They also bring to mind the wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld in stressing the vital importance of “unknown unknowns.”
Of course, it has always been thus.
Once, an Indian mystic was explaining to an Englishman the structure of the universe. The world sits atop a giant elephant, said the holy man.
That’s all well and good, responded the Englishman with classic Anglican sense, but what does the elephant stand on? The wise-man’s eyes widened and he exclaimed, Why, it stands upon the shell of a grand and cosmic tortoise, of course!
That’s all well and good, again responded the Englishman, but what does the tortoise stand on?
Surprisingly, this second question startled the fakir. Scratching his head, he thought for a minute, then replied with a single Hindi word that may roughly be translated as:
“Something I know not what.”
One can imagine the snide smirk upon our Englishman’s face, having cornered his interlocutor into admitting so much ignorance. After all, the English are heirs to a vast Western tradition, the sole ambition of which is to carefully categorize and explain the whole of nature.
And this enterprise has been remarkably successful; certainly Westerners can claim to have prodded and exposed a great many of nature’s workings. In fact, we judge other cultures as “modern” to the extent, and only to the extent, that they adopt and appropriate Western scientific mores.
And yet…
Perhaps the Western penetration of nature has been superficial at best. In fact, the foremost thinkers on the very edges of science are staring into an abyss of knowledge -- literally.
Dark matter and dark energy combined make up 95 percent of everything. And yet we have no idea what these things are, how they work, or what they mean for the fate of the universe.
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