Impact of science on society
Science and technology and their use in economic developments and commercialization have revolutionized the whole world in such a way that everything appears to have changed in last 100-200 years. Developments in the field of space technology, atomic energy, electronics, biotechnology, modern agriculture, telecommunication, and manufacturing systems are some of the examples of these changes. They have helped a lot in long distance communications which has reduced the whole world to a small village, availability of information at finger tips, reducing death rates, items of luxurious life like television, refrigerator, mobiles, control of various diseases, industrial products of different types like steel, aluminum, plastic and many others. Thus science has made our life very comfortable,
However, they have also resulted in an increase in population, depletion of natural resources, damage to the environment, increase in terrorism, threats of nuclear wars and so on. These changes also have played a key role in making this world truly global. However, all these consequences have resulted in a large scale increase in entropy in the world at different levels in different fields (Pokharna 2012). In addition, because of these changes and domination of science and technology in all walks of life, an impression has been created that scientific knowledge is the supreme and anything other, which does not fall into this domain is not very relevant. But Science and technology are just two hundred years old only and there was a concept of knowledge and technology even before the modern science came into the existence.
There are disciplines like parapsychology like telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, worshipping of Devi Devtas in temples and several others. They are also part of a bigger reality, but they are not considered in the modern science, but by this criteria we might be loosing some very important aspect of reality. It is high time that we examine these phenomena in a more rational way, which need not be scientific but may have some other set of rules.
Half of the animals in the world have disappeared in the last 40 years, that is since 1970. It is due to uncontrollable human activity, through habitat loss, deforestation, climate change, over-fishing and hunting. Every year, we are losing almost 25000 biological species (http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth /biodiversity/ biodiversity/), never to get them back ever. Every year, around 15,000 crores animals are killed for food which is directly damaging the environment. On the other hand science is not able to produce even an ant or a blade of grass because life comes from life only.
Conservations laws and limitations of scientific methodology
Any phenomenon is called scientific if it can be verified in a laboratory under given set of controlled conditions and is reproducible at any point of time and at any place. This condition is called space-time invariance condition in science. In addition, we define conservation laws in physics which are foundation of all scientific measurements. Thus we have conservation laws for energy, linear momentum, angular momentum etc. Now all these conservation laws are defined for isolated closed systems, thus approximating the nature, even if the interaction is very profound..
Thus let us discuss the most important contradictions which exist in the very definitions of the physical variables which measure various properties of different systems. The various properties are measured in terms of some conserved quantities. One assumes that for any closed system, there exist some physically observable quantities which do not change with respect to some variables and hence the system can be described in terms of these quantities. Examples of such quantities are energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum etc.
In the most general form energy of any closed system is defined as the quantity which do not change with time (all other forms of energy are definable from the above general definition). However, the time is defined as that quality of the system which is responsible for causing changes in the system and is measured by finding the changes taking place in the system. This is a very serious contradiction in the definition of energy which is unavoidable.
Similarly linear momentum of a closed system is defined by the fact that it is a quantity for the closed and isolated system which remains invariant when the system moves (translates) in a homogeneous space. However as soon as we introduce a material system in a homogeneous space it becomes inhomogeneous (say because of the gravitational field which is present because of the material system itself). Hence the space in the presence of a mass is not homogeneous and the definition of linear momentum becomes ambiguous. Furthermore, our universe is inhomogeneous, so the law of conservation of momentum is not strictly true. ( The ordinary definition of linear momentum of a body as a product of its mass and velocity is derivable from the above general definition.)
A similar story can be written for other fundamental conserved quantities like angular momentum for a closed isolated systems which is property for a closed isolated system which remains invariant with respect to rotation in space about certain axis. As far as velocity and position measurements are concerned we have already discussed that they can be measured perfectly in classical physics but only measured approximately with some uncertainty in quantum physics. It can be easily realized that all other properties of any system are derivable from the above conserved quantities e. g. temperature of a system is related with the kinetic energy of the particles of the systems, Thus the quantities themselves which are used for description of different systems are not properly defined.
Another important limitation of these scientific methods is the fact that in all these methods a particular system is assumed to be completely isolated from the rest of the environment and then this isolated system is studied without bothering about the rest of the environment. Thus when a rocket is launched then scientists watch only the trajectory of the rocket whether it is following the planned trajectory or not, but no body bothers the effect of hot gases emitted from the other side of the rocket on the small insects in air like bacteria and viruses. However, such an assumption cannot be justified by one who desires complete understanding of any system. This is so because all phenomena occurring in nature are interconnected with each other and hence influencing each other in a direct or indirect way. Generalizing this, such interactions between a particular system and the rest of the universe may have very important consequences on the state of the system (particularly in future time). Thus to study any phenomenon in nature, one has to study all the others simultaneously which is not possible by scientific methods.
Godel’s incompleteness theorems :
The most attractive aspect of scientific knowledge is its mathematical basis. We generally feel that this mathematical representation of various scientific facts make our knowledge more precise and accurate. However, from the following theorems which have been put forward by the great mathematician Kurtz Godel, we find that any mathematical representation of any physical reality limits our knowledge of that reality. Not only this but the theorem also imply that none of the languages or representation can express the reality of nature with perfection. Complete knowledge must necessarily have its foundation in an unexpressed, unmanifest field of intelligence. Let us begin with the theorems.
Godel’s first in-completeness theorem
This theorem says that the truth of a formalism (which describes any phenomenon) cannot be proved. Thus no finite expression of mathematical knowledge can ever provide a basis for comprehensive knowledge even of the elementary properties of the counting numbers. Thus if one starts with a collection C of symbolic mathematical (or any other) axioms which is
specifiable by a finite number of mechanical rules, and if C is consistent, then there will be a true statement about the counting numbers which can-not be proved from the axioms C, using the standard rules of mathematical logic. The proof of this theorem shows that from C one can construct a sentence S in the simple mathematical language of elementary number theory whose meaning is : This sentence is not provable from C. Once S is constructed it follows easily that S must be true but not provable from C. Thus on the basis of any finitely specifiable collection of axioms C, one cannot prove all true propositions about the counting numbers.
Godel’s second incompleteness theorem
A formal language (mathematical or any other) if consistent cannot define its own truth i.e. the definition of truth for a theory must be of a higher order than the theory itself. We can also say that the consistency of any specifiable collection of axioms can never be established on the basis of mathematical arguments which can be justified by these axioms. Thus to establish the validity of any single mathematical system one must necessarily utilize a more comprehensive system, to validate the latter system one has to investigate an even more comprehensive system.
Beauty of the Scientific Methods :
From the above discussion we conclude that all scientific methods give incomplete knowledge of various phenomena. However, the beauty of the scientific methods lie in the fact that approximations are possible and they work with fairly good accuracy. If one is satisfied with an approximate “understanding”, one can explain many phenomena in terms of a few and thus understand different aspects of nature in an approximate way without having to understand everything at once.
But one who desires complete understanding of different phenomena has to study the whole universe simultaneously to get rid of the limits caused by space time and finite speed of light and to take account of the mutual effects of various phenomena occurring in the universe on each other simultaneously. Furthermore the interaction between the knower and his object must not disturb the state of the object. This is an imaginary concept. But such a possibility is reflected in defining the concept of Maxwell Demon in science (Ref. ) and the concept of Kevaljnana in Jainism (Ref.).
Uncertainty principle of quantum physics implies indeterminism at microscopic level:
Need to realize that scientific knowledge is only a subset of the total knowledge system:
With the advent of science and the resulting technology, a misunderstanding and misconception has developed among the masses that the scientific knowledge is the only ultimate knowledge in the world. Not only this it also presumed that the knowledge which is experimentally verifiable and repeatable at any place and at any time alone is the actual knowledge. This is far from the truth. The fact is that the so called science is just around 200 years old and the concept of knowledge existed much before that for several centuries. Vedas, Upnishads, Puranas, Agamas, Mahabharat and Ramayana, Koran, Bible have lot of knowledge about life and controls to be followed. Similarly technology of gold manufacturing in the ancient India, design of old temples etc also involve knowledge, which need not be scientific. Hence scientific knowledge is only a small subset of the total knowledge system. Hence the basic starting point was knowledge in general and scientific knowledge in particular.
At this juncture, if we look at Indian philosophy then we find that knowledge has been given primary importance in the spiritual development, as is mentioned in Gyan Yoga. Although there are other directions of spiritual developments also like bhakti yoga and karma yoga. However, Gyan yoga is given more importance because one understands the “Why and How” of spiritual development. One therefore infers that knowledge is supreme object in the world, everything else comes later. Hence a process in which knowledge increases and/or also get refined should be real and correct path of evolution. Now in the field of science, a tremendous amount of knowledge has been gathered in the world in different disciplines and every day much more is added to this ocean of scientific knowledge. But all scientific knowledge is a subset of total knowledge system which a human consciousness can possess.
Consciousness
Main Disciplines under which work on consciousness is going on:
- Philosophy
The concept of consciousness
Materialism and dualism
Panpsychism, neural monism, and idealism
Ontology of consciousness
Qualia
Machine consciousness
Mental causation and the function of consciousness:
The “hard problem” and the explanatory gap
Philosophical theories of consciousness Higher-order thought:
Epistemology and philosophy of science
Personal identity and the self
Free will and agency
Intentionality and representation
Philosophy of perception
Miscellaneous
- . Neuroscience
Neural Correlates of Consciousness (general)
Methodologies (fMRI, EEG etc.)
Neuroscience of vision
Other sensory modalities
Motor control
Memory and learning
Blindsight
Neurology, Neuropsychology and Neuropathology
Coma and vegetative states
Anesthesia and Pharmacology
Cellular and sub-neural processes
Quantum brain biology
Brain networks, synchrony and scale
Emotion
Sleep and waking
Brain stimulations techniques
Specific brain areas
Neurobiological theories of consciousness
Miscellaneous
- Cognitive Science & Psychology
Attention
First person, Second person and third person perspectives
Vision
Other sensory modalities
Memory, learning and synaptic plasticity
Emotion
Language
Mental imagery
Implicit and explicit processes
Unconscious and conscious processes
Sleep and dreaming
Cognitive development
Artificial intelligence & robotics
Neural networks and connectionism
Cognitive architectures
Ethology
Self-consciousness and metacognition
Temporal consciousness
Intelligence and creativity
Cognitive theories of consciousness
Miscellaneous
4.0. Physical and Biological Sciences
Quantum physics, collapse and the measurement problem
Quantum field approaches
Space and time and nature of reality
Cosmology and integrative models
Emergence, non-linear dynamics and complexity
Hierarchies, scale invariance and 1/f systems
Logic and computational theory
Quantum brain biology
Biophysics and coherence
Origin and nature of life
Consciousness and evolution
Brain stimulation techniques
Medicine and healing
Quantum theories of consciousness
Miscellaneous
5.0. Experiential Approaches
Phenomenology
Meditation
Hypnosis
Other altered states of consciousness
Transpersonal and humanistic psychology
Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
Lucid dreaming
Near-death and anomalous experiences
Parapsychology
Contemplation and mysticism
Virtual reality
Miscellaneous
6.0. Culture and Humanities
Literature and hermeneutics
Art and aesthetics
Music
Religion and spirituality
Mythology
Sociology
Anthropology
Information technology
Ethics and legal studies
Education
Entertainment
Miscellaneous