Science - The Gap

The other day I had a nice conversation with a fellow physics graduate. A rare experience, and always nice. Jane, the science graduate in question, had studied mathematics and physics. When I asked what her speciality was (optics, dynamics, particle, etc.) she replied "teaching". But then explained that her training wasn't intended for her to teach science to students. It is instead intended to teach science to science teachers.

So what? Well in case you were unaware modern science has progressed to a level that no individual can study and learn it all. No group of individuals can do so. And thus we're left with a gaping hole between the experts at the cutting edge the whole rest of society.

If you were to believe Hollywood, you might think that genius scientists still come up with ground breaking discoveries. Dr. Emmett Brown from "Back to the Future" is a great example. The crazy physicist in his lab coat, wild hair everywhere, and brains too big to function normally in society. In reality, major breakthroughs are collaborations of work. Hundreds of people work for years on a project. And if a breakthrough comes, the lead researcher or project director will be credited by name for the discovery. But in reality it would take that person and dozens more from their team to fully document, analyse, and publish the work.

Indeed, Jane hoped to be the person who would learn from those scientists what it is they have done or learned. Then she in turn would relay that knowledge (at a lower level) to the people who need to teach it, who in turn relay it to students.

Each step along the way the interface "dumbs down" the information a bit. Making it digestible for a larger and larger audience. But also making it less useful.

The end result is that each of us is relying every day on technologies we don't understand. Even worse, these are things that no one you know understands. No individual could build from scratch the computer you're reading this on. Even just the millions of lines of software on your computer are beyond any one person's abilities.

The point? The point I'm hoping to make is that this situation should be respected. It should scare more people than it does. And yet it seems to go virtually unnoticed.

Society seems to be teetering high upon a pedestal it has made for itself. Held up by composite materials, high-speed data connections, lasers, silicon wafers, and super glue.

Is anyone else worried?