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Humans have a terrible tendency to underestimate the complexity of reality, and the same stroke - diminish its beauty. The fact that we can look at a tree, or l
by brink 7y ago
Humans have a terrible tendency to underestimate the complexity of reality, and the same stroke - diminish its beauty. The fact that we can look at a tree, or look into the sky with boredom is a great testament to this. With this same mentality, we've looked at a human brain and oversimplified it, and underestimated it. We're continually finding that reality is more complex than we thought.
- hhs 7y agoGunther Stent made an interesting comment about this: "I believe that science is, by nature, reductionist, but I also believe that reductionism will not carry us all the way. One of the reasons why I think science will eventually peter out is because you must always explain some higher level in terms of some lower level - that's what scientists have to do. But I think that when finally we get to sufficiently complex things, this will not be possible." That's one perspective. I do wonder how deep we'll get with understanding and simulating the brain.
- nefitty 7y agoWhat would replace science? Some sort of enterprise of systemic analysis? "We see all the dots science has shone a light on. Let's now figure out how they're connected and how they affect each other." That would be cool.
- GuiA 7y agoStatistical models fed by massive data that no single human can fully understand are still “science”, but it’s definitely a very different paradigm for science than what we’ve had for the past few centuries, and it seems to be what we’re heading towards. Eg a few decades from now, 24/7 biometrics monitoring at massive scale + machine learning might let us predict complex conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, various types of cancer, etc very accurately and very early, yet we might not be any closer to understanding what causes them at a fundamental level in the first place.
- realbarack 7y agoIf by "sufficiently complex things" Stent means "things like consciousness," I found Max Tegmark's hypothesis in "Life 3.0" compelling: that just as information can arise from an arrangement of matter (data on a magnetic disk), consciousness might arise from an arrangement of information.
- Hoasi 7y ago> Humans have a terrible tendency to underestimate the complexity of reality, and the same stroke - diminish its beauty. True, but this is like optimism. With the motivation to go through life and do things, an optimist can afford unrealistic goals. Sometimes, that is what pays off.
- xt00 7y agoTrue.. old folks like to mention that kids take things for granted.. if they didn’t they would just be staring at cars go by all day going “wooooowwwww.... you guys seein this shit??”