Jonah Lehrer:
Karl Popper, the great philosopher of science, once divided the world into two categories: clocks and clouds. Clocks are neat, orderly systems that can be solved through reduction; clouds are an epistemic mess, "highly irregular, disorderly, and more or less unpredictable." The mistake of modern science is to pretend that everything is a clock, which is why we get seduced again and again by the false promises of brain scanners and gene sequencers. We want to believe we will understand nature if we find the exact right tool to cut its joints. But that approach is doomed to failure. We live in a universe not of clocks but of clouds.
Hat tip:
Richard Oliver
Posted by Johnnie Moore at 11:22
in Blogs & networks
Permalink
URL for Trackbacks: http://www.johnniemoore.com/mt/minotaur.cgi/2458.
Email me
Facebook/Johnnie Moore
Linkedin/Johnnie Moore
Twitter/johnniemoore
Last.fm/johnniemoore
Del.icio.us/johnniemoore
Technorati/johnniemoore
MyBlogLog/JohnnieM
Blog/Johnnie Moore
Comments (4)
In my view, we live IN BETWEEN clock and clouds. We live IN BETWEEN mind-brain and consciousness-DNA. We live IN BETWEEN body-mind and soul. So, put in balance between probabilistic with possibility expectation. So again, put in balance between “deducto-hypothetico-verificative” as our scientific mind set with “gnosis” as human potential natural phenomenon. Visit our Mobee Knowledge K-base http://delicious.com/mobeeknowledge/gnosis and http://delicious.com/mobeeknowledge/science and http://delicious.com/mobeeknowledge/consciousnessdna
June 13, 2010 01:07 Permalink for comment
I only learned of Popper's works a few years ago. I think I would have been spared a lot of intellectual turmoil had I read his work in highs school.
June 19, 2010 21:43 Permalink for comment
I do agree we should not consider everything able to be analyzed and then predictable or understandable enough to be decoded. However a universe composed only by “clouds” would be disappointing I believe. For instance, works on the neurogenesis process or even the DNA structure discovery had given lots of hope to many people. It seems the challenge is to keep a good balance between both categories.
December 23, 2010 15:33 Permalink for comment
>The mistake of modern science is to pretend that everything is a clock,
Not just science - most leaders and managers don't make the distinction either - see Wisdom of Clouds -
http://wellbeingjourney.co.uk/programmes/complexity-and-wellbeing/
December 23, 2010 18:45 Permalink for comment