It is not lost on me that most of my posts at this blog are on topics that have historically been the province of religion and metaphysics: the fundamental nature of reality, and the origins of humanity.
Neither field, of course, has any great practical application. We are reaching the point where any unsolved problems in physics are unlikely to have engineering applications. And, the prehistoric ancestral roots of humanity aren't necessarily helpful and indeed have the potential to be counterproductive in dealing with the present affairs of humanity. These fields are science for the sake of science. One can imagine spin-off benefits arising from these studies, but they aren't terribly utilitarian pursuits.
Do I blog to satisfy some unmet psychological need that arises because I am not religious, and in particular, do not subscribe to theological doctrine regarding metaphysics and human origins? Perhaps. But, part of the point is that these are grand problems that address ultimate and eternal questions. They are difficult and complex, but most of the "forest level" data needed to think seriously about them are widely accessible to members of the educated lay public like myself, via the Internet, for free or something close to free.
We are reaching the point where any unsolved problems in physics are unlikely to have engineering applications.
ReplyDeleteImproving our understanding the physical laws that govern our reality has time and again led to major breakthroughs in technology. I can't think of a major discovery in physics that hasn't led to an improvement in the quality of life for millions of people, either directly or indirectly. Maybe some obscure discovery in astrophysics could seem irrelevant to humanitarian progress, but in fact may inspire a young would-be physicist to devote his or her entire life to understanding the laws of nature and inventing the microwave oven.
And, the prehistoric ancestral roots of humanity aren't necessarily helpful and indeed have the potential to be counterproductive in dealing with the present affairs of humanity.
Perhaps what makes humans different from all other forms of life on the planet is that we have the ability and the desire to understand why we are here, and how we got here. One can use the knowledge we discover in counterproductive ways, but I personally feel that my growing understanding of both the common origin of the human populations and the different paths our ancestors took to get us to where we are, have instilled in me a greater feeling of connection to everyone else I share this planet with.