Zachriel
Posts: 2723 Joined: Sep. 2006
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Ekstasis Quote | What is more, since the cosmos is just one big happenstance, why should be believe that there will always be additional levels of knowledge to discover? It is just as likely that, like the Table of Elements, we will “be there, done that”. |
Dmitri Mendeleev discovers the Periodic Table while playing his favorite game, Patience, and thereby reaches the end of science. (It's not even the end of the Periodic Table!) A better model is called scale invariance. We would expect to see lots of little advances, a few big ones, and only very rarely revolutions.
Ekstasis Quote | For example, never again will we discover something so earth-shattering as the double helix, or the theory of relativity. |
Yeah, right. The latter half of the 20th Century is not really known for its scientific advances.
Reg: What has science done for us (lately)? Xerxes: Um, discovered blackholes? Reg: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah. Commando: And quasars. Reg: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the blackholes and quasars are two things that scientists have discovered. Matthias: Cosmic microwave radiation Reg: Well, yeah. Obviously the cosmic microwave radiation. I mean, cosmic microwave radiation goes without saying, doesn't it? But apart from black holes, quasars, and cosmic microwave radiation-- COMMANDO: Plate tectonics. XERXES: Discoveries of early human ancestors such as Australopithecus afarensis. COMMANDOS: Huh? Heh? Huh... COMMANDO: Archaea, a new domain of life found near deep ocean vents COMMANDOS: Ohh... REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough. COMMANDO: And the laser. COMMANDOS: Oh, yes. Yeah... FRANCIS: Yeah. Yeah, that's something we'd really miss, Reg, if the scientists left. Huh. COMMANDO: Medical advances. Sequencing the human genome. LORETTA: And it's safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg, because of broadband technology which allows the reception of communication signals below the noise floor. FRANCIS: Yeah, they certainly know how to find order in nature. Let's face it. They're the only ones who could in a place like this. COMMANDOS: Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. REG: All right, but apart from the blackholes, quasars, cosmic background radiation, the laser, medical advances, the human genome, plate tectonics, Australopithecus afarensis, theropod ancestry of avian species, Archaea, broadband technology, evidence of an extraterrestrial "earth-shattering" object wiping out the dinosaurs, and the invention of the Internet, what have scientists done for us (lately)? XERXES: Space travel. REG: Oh. Space travel? Shut up! [bam bam bam bam bam bam bam] [bam bam bam bam bam]
Life of Brian, Scene 9: The Commandos
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You never step on the same tard twice—for it's not the same tard and you're not the same person.
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