Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Two days ago, I wrote about the mad science that "pure research" can sometimes be.  That post itself was a follow-up to another post on the primacy of science, in which I yet again worried about science and technology that is disconnected from the humanities and the social sciences.

It is not that I am anti-science, unlike the nutcases who elected the anti-science-in-chief, whose scientific proclamations include: Windmills cause cancer; hurricanes can be nuked; ingesting bleach will prevent COVID-19; vaccination causes autism; and more.

Science, as I have often described even knowledge to students, is like the kitchen knife.  One can use a kitchen knife to create tasty and healthy dishes, or one can also go the OJ route.

Richard Feyman gives me yet another metaphor to think about the value of science.  He draws on a Buddhist thought: "To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell."  The same key that opens the gates of heaven also opens hell's gates. The question then is are we at the gates of hell or heaven, and how do we know we are on the way to heaven or hell?

Of the three values that Feynman lists, I find the following to be critical:

I would now like to turn to a third value that science has. It is a little less direct, but not much. The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.
Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don’t know whether everyone realizes this is true.

On top of this varying degrees of certainty, the sciences, Feynman writes, "do not directly teach good and bad."  Consider an example that he gives:

Communications between nations must promote understanding - so went another dream. But the machines of communication can be manipulated. What is communicated can be truth or lie. Communication is a strong force, but also for either good or evil.

Reminds you of Facebook, and other communication channels in which manipulation is the game that is played for fortune and power?

Feynman wrote that in 1955.  Yes, in 1955!

He concludes with this:

It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress which comes from a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.

This is how even this mediocre teacher engages with his students at a podunk university.  But, and as one whose initial training was in science and technology, I have also worried for long that the science that takes us to heaven is losing the on public relations front because science rarely ever offers the certainty that we humans crave for:

A refreshing feeling that we don't know and we are trying our best to find out.  What we know now is incredibly more than what people knew only a few generations ago.  And there is a good chance that quote a bit of what we now know will be overthrown in a couple of generations.  It is awesome.
But, we humans like a clear story, a story that does not keep changing.  We like narratives that provide us with a sense of certainty.

So, when a narcissistic sociopath proclaims with certainty that he alone can fix all our problems, it does not surprise me one bit that his certainty beat the crap out of the varying degrees of uncertainty that a scientific and rational mind offers.

What is the way forward then?

It is a struggle to fight for truth and to know.  Our fantastic lives today are possible thanks to the people who engaged in this struggle for hundreds of years.  As Feynman wrote:

It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

We have the key; we just need to figure out the path towards the gates of heaven.