by Charles Peterson

Created on: June 22, 2009

We are all aware that science is a descriptive study of nature. Most people are hard wired into believing that science is a force which we harness when we produce technology. For most of the public science and technology are the same thing. People who don't practice science and who do not produce technology have no reason to tell them apart. For most people science and technology are identical.

If science is some sort of sport, what are the rules for it? Much, but maybe not most, of the public have heard of the scientific method. Because this is something that science uses, and it is supposed to be good, people have respect for it. When their children play with a video game the parents can say to themselves, I'm sure glad we have the scientific method.

What is this scientific method? The engine that runs it uses one key ingredient. Results must be reproducible. This ingredient has two immediate ramifications which are almost as important as the key ingredient itself. One is objectivity. The other is how to measure.

Objectivity has risen to the level of religious furor in the public. So we can say that science has had a spinoff into humanity. What it really means is that two people can agree on the same thing. In humans we say that when we can agree on something we are thinking subjectively about the other person. We must remember that subjectiveness and objectiveness go equally into the objectivity dogma.

Measuring is the sticky wicket. A major tenet of science is that when you measure something you are changing the experiment. This can be easily explained. People who are not used to science tend to think that a measurement is an absolute. Consider the example of height. Suppose one measures a man with a yardstick and finds that he is five feet tall. Do you think that is an absolute? You say, Sure. The yardstick doesn't change. But you forgot to consider that now you know the man is five feet tall. Suppose that on the other side of the world a woman is measured and found to be five feet tall. They probably use a different yardstick there. So at least one can think of the history of standardized processes. But meanwhile, while you are philosophizing to yourself, the man and the woman learn that they are both five feet tall. They think this is karma. So they decide to marry.

Thus one sees that measuring is a sticky wicket because when one enters an experiment the objects of the experiment are changed.

I am only being a humorist here because people who are not scientists do not ordinarily know how scientists think. On the humanist side, if people did know the scientific method, and felt bound by it, they would take much more responsibility for their actions. As we see this is not so we can't say that the scientific method means any great shakes for civilization.

The conclusion is that science is an art practiced by some people, whose dominant force in life is to use the scientific method, for which society is thankful if they like the technology spinoffs. The scientists themselves are few and not well understood.

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