I read an article in a magazine in August 2010 about a couple of scientists who disputed the law of gravity that was formulated by Sir Isaac Newton a long-long time ago. The article also reminded the readers that Albert Einstein also disputed this law. I can't help but being skeptical about this article after all that I have been taught since high school, so I went to the internet and did further search. At the end of it, I was surprised by how much we do not know about gravity. Why haven't I heard about this dispute from my physics teachers 25 years ago? Why did they teach me as if this thing has been figured out?
This dispute is remarkable, if you think that we have been flying our airplanes, measure weights, construct our buildings based on the idea of gravity. It is also mind boggling, to think that since two of the greatest scientists humanity ever known (Einstein and Newton) disputed this fundamental law, not much new understanding has been made about it. One can't help asking a question, do we really know anything at all?
It is not to say that human race has not progressed. Just watch a jumbo jet plane take off and you would marvel at our ability to make this massive structure to fly. Overtime, we have continued to progress to reduce the number of accidents and errors, while making the planes bigger and faster. It is quite a paradox to see how we have not advanced much in the understanding of how our universe works, but we have managed to progress very rapidly on this unconfirmed basis.
Another paradox I have seen is in medicine. We all know that we have advanced so much in the medical technology and diagnostic tools, that we are now able to see the functioning of our internal organs while we stay awake and listen to the doctor's explanation. My mother went through a broken hip repair with minimum amount of surgeries - something that I cannot imagine being done even a decade ago.
Yet, despite all this, we continue to play "catch up" on fixing the world's health. While we continue to struggle with cure for AIDS, cancer and Parkinson disease - new strains of viruses appears. Old illness like lepracy and cholera are making a comeback in poor countries. Fear for epidemic has never been more global than it is in the 21st century.
Many people are also finding better answers in the age old Chinese traditional medicine and ayurvedic healing. Those who has gone through the healing testify that the results are remarkably powerful and permanent. These have been credited to cure anything from flu to cancer, as well as to increase your immune system, improve your digestive system and reduce your weight problem. What is most amazing to me, is that these procedures are hardly explainable scientifically.
So it comes back to the paradox, that while we seem to have been progressing rapidly, we have made very little advance in understanding.
I think the same paradox can be found in many other things, from progress in bio-engineering vs. our struggle to understand nature, or from progress in military equipments vs. our struggle in stopping hatred, wars and terrorism. We also struggle in our understanding of each other, despite the progress in communication technology.
So what's wrong with that? one may argue. Isn't it better to progress than wait until we understand more?
In my view, the ambition to progress now and understand later has led our modern society to become "one track minded". We will think that the only way to cure is to advance in medical technology. We will also think that the only way to teach our kids about the functioning of the world is by forcing them to learn what we know, instead of exploring what we do not know. The only way to be influential is to have money or military equipment. The only way to have a better living is to go to the city and work for corporations. At least as long as I have lived, our world has been going full blast following this one track mindset.
In the mean time, we are forgetting that there are still so many things we do not know. Maybe many of people's health problems can be solved through better environment and better quality food, not antibiotics. Maybe a better way to teach children is to let them explore and break the conventions instead of telling them about the conventions. Maybe we do not need bio-engineered crops to feed genetically enhanced cows if the world stop indulging in up sized meals.
I believe that progress without better understanding will only satisfy our short term indulgence while leading to long term problems, hatred and destruction. I believe we will be better off if we go slower in seeking progress, and instead focusing on seeking to understand. Seek to understand why the other cultures behave a certain way. Seek to understand how to teach differently so that the kids can understand better than us. Seek to understand why we are still unable to reduce poverty and what are the things we need to change to fix it.
Afterall, is there really such thing as progress without understanding?
