X-Message-Number: 12084 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: about the possibility of progress, for Thomas Mazanec Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 14:40:51 +1000 (EST) Hi everyone! For myself I do not see any sign of an inability to progress further (in general). For what it's worth, I have a reason for believing that such progress will never NEED to stop: at present we construct theories to describe some aspects of how the world (or people) behave. But theories are no more than symbolic constructs; the real issue is just how we attach those symbols to things in the world. And since the world itself will always fail to fit our symbolic constructions (because of the nature of symbols, not the nature of the world), we'll find ourselves constantly looking for new ones. I will say, though, that past history strongly suggests that we cannot assume that a DRIVE to make our theories fit the world will always persist or persist at the same level. Human beings have already passed through several periods in which the drive to do science was very low or even absent. And one thing that seems to happen whenever that drive is low is that most people, even most investigators, think they've totally solved all the scientific questions, and no more such work is needed. (Think of Ptolemaic Theory, or the early Middle Ages of Europe. For that matter, think of large periods of Chinese history). And whether or not our ability to advance has ended at any given time remains basically an unknown. The only way to show that it has is to try to advance. Perhaps the effort fails because it is impossible, or perhaps we failed to see what was needed or gave up too soon. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12084