The Mechanics of Understanding | Final Chapter - The Relevant
What is your first memory as a kid? I remember mine, I was on a family vacation and the only thing I remember is the sense of wonder looking at The Pantheon which was far bigger than my house and what I did for the entire journey was asking questions about everything I was seeing.
When we were kids we were always doing science, we questioned everything, we experimented everything, we had a thirst for knowledge no one could ever stop. And we were happy when we found something new, we always wanted to satisfy that need for adventure and discovery.
Then we grew up, we were put in schools where we were thought not to question, to stay quiet and listen. The only goal you had, was to collect the best votes spitting out everything that was written on your textbook and after that, all the knowledge was gone because it became useless.
This is wrong on so many levels, explaining all of them is beyond the scope of this post, but the biggest problem is that this system produces a society that asks: ”Why is it relevant for us to go to Mars? What is the point of understanding the universe if we have problem here on earth?”
In this series we have talked about “The Mechanics of Understanding” viewed from different camera angles through the history of humanity touching the most relevant points, but always asking, in a way or another, Why is it important for us to understand it?
Well, the final answer to that question is definitely simple: Understanding the world empowers you, but understanding the way we understand protects you.
This world is beautiful, but also terrifying. Its duality is undeniable and in a world where traditional education doesn’t inspire young ones to explore and do science, where all the beauty of the world is, we have the great chance to fall on the terrifying part of our world.
The world seen from the lenses of science looks very different from the world the current society present to you, it is not mysterious, there are a lot of things we now understand and those which are still a mystery are just waiting to be discovered by those who want to unveil them!
The knowledge you acquire through your entire life will mould your personality. In other words, what makes you… you, is what you have in your mind.
The Relevant
The most common elements in the Universe are: Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen.
The most common elements in the Human body are: Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen.
Source
These elements were not created during the Big Bang, they are the product of the spectacular death of many stars born in unknown ages where the universe had an unrecognizable shape. We were made by a process that takes millions of years and an unimaginable amount of energy, but we know that thanks to our curiosity, thanks to our thirst for knowledge, thanks to our ability to question we know that we are made of star, we know that when we look up in the night sky, we look inside ourselves.
Good final chapter.
So, to summarize the take-home-message:
It may safe your life or make it more enjoyable at least. And I don't mean that everyone should deal with quantum theory or molecular genetics or whatever, but sometimes there are the little things we can enjoy to understand - even if it is "only" in a very basic way.
Looking forward to you next series!
Happy you got the message!! :-) Indeed, not everyone should deal with “hardcore mathematics”, but the value of questioning little or huge things is immense.
In your series “Science for Everybody” you don’t talk about math equations in details, you explain how things behave and why those behaviours affect us. That’s what people need, we need to be curious about everything :-)
P.s. Thank for every comment on this series, it is really nice to read your opinion, it always enrich what I want to explain in my posts :-)
we know that when we look up in the night sky, we look inside ourselves... yes absolutely correct, the Universe is holographic, and it works the other way round too. Man is a micro version of the cosmos. The Principle of Correspondence it is called, was known millennia ago ;) There are 6 other Principles though. Good story!
Well, I guess that's way to look at the universe as I explain previously in this series. But, I don't want to be misunderstood, the "poetic" conclusion of this article does not reflect thoughts from Hermeticism or other philosophies. Millennia ago people did not know how atoms were forged, or even that atoms were real, it is thanks to what i describe in the whole Series that we know what we know today, that we came to the certain conclusion that we are made of "star stuff" :-) Thanks for the feedback :-)