‘Fluffy white kittens’ kriegen Riesenzähne und verspeisen wissenschaftliche Gewissheiten zum Frühstück
But consider William Thomson, the First Baron Kelvin. In 1900, most thinkers agreed that almost every mystery of the physical world had been more or less revealed. The small questions that remained, primarily the properties of light and black-body radiation, were described by Kelvin als twin clouds in the otherwise clear sky of knowledge – perhaps unfathomablem ultimately trivial, and if you looked at them the right way, shaped like fluffy white kittens.
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For while there my be legitimate, eternal mysteries out there that are beyond our comprehension, history, in fact, shows us that if we do ask questions, we are likely to find the answers – which is perhaps more frightening than ignorance.
John Hodgman
The paradox of science is that every answer breed at least two new questions. More answers mean even more questions, expanding not only what we know but also what we don’t know. Every new tool for looking farther or deeper or smaller allows us to spy into our own ignorance. Future technologies such as artificical intelligence, controlled fusion, and quantum computing (to name a few on the near horizon) will change the world – that means the biggest questions have yet to be asked.
Kevin Kelly
Beide in der Februarausgabe von Wired mit dem großartigen 20-seitigen Special: ‘What We Don’t Know About…’ (42 Fragen, mit denen sich die Naturwissenschaft gerade herumschlägt, bei denen sie aber (noch) nicht richtig durchblickt…)