The Life Cycle of Science
By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

"There was a time when the newspapers said that only twelve men
understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe that there
ever was such a time... On the other hand, I think it is safe to say
that no one understands quantum mechanics... Do not keep saying to
yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like
that?', because you will get 'down the drain' into a blind alley
from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like
that."
R. P. Feynman (1967)

"The first processes, therefore, in the effectual studies of the
sciences, must be ones of simplification and reduction of the
results of previous investigations to a form in which the mind can
grasp them."
J. C. Maxwell, On Faraday's lines of force

" ...conventional formulations of quantum theory, and of quantum
field theory in particular, are unprofessionally vague and
ambiguous. Professional theoretical physicists ought to be able to
do better. Bohm has shown us a way."
John S. Bell, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics

"It would seem that the theory [quantum mechanics] is exclusively
concerned about 'results of measurement', and has nothing to say
about anything else. What exactly qualifies some physical systems to
play the role of 'measurer'? Was the wavefunction of the world
waiting to jump for thousands of millions of years until a single-
celled living creature appeared? Or did it have to wait a little
longer, for some better qualified system ... with a Ph.D.? If the
theory is to apply to anything but highly idealized laboratory
operations, are we not obliged to admit that more or
less 'measurement-like' processes are going on more or less all the
time, more or less everywhere. Do we not have jumping then all the
time?

The first charge against 'measurement', in the fundamental axioms of
quantum mechanics, is that it anchors the shifty split of the world
into 'system' and 'apparatus'. A second charge is that the word
comes loaded with meaning from everyday life, meaning which is
entirely inappropriate in the quantum context. When it is said that
something is 'measured' it is difficult not to think of the result
as referring to some pre-existing property of the object in
question. This is to disregard Bohr's insistence that in quantum
phenomena the apparatus as well as the system is essentially
involved. If it were not so, how could we understand, for example,
that 'measurement' of a component of 'angular momentum' ... in an
arbitrarily chosen direction ... yields one of a discrete set of
values? When one forgets the role of the apparatus, as the
word 'measurement' makes all too likely, one despairs of ordinary
logic ... hence 'quantum logic'. When one remembers the role of the
apparatus, ordinary logic is just fine.

In other contexts, physicists have been able to take words from
ordinary language and use them as technical terms with no great harm
done. Take for example the 'strangeness', 'charm', and 'beauty' of
elementary particle physics. No one is taken in by this 'baby
talk'... Would that it were so with 'measurement'. But in fact the
word has had such a damaging effect on the discussion, that I think
it should now be banned altogether in quantum mechanics."
J. S. Bell, Against "Measurement"

"Is it not clear from the smallness of the scintillation on the
screen that we have to do with a particle? And is it not clear, from
the diffraction and interference patterns, that the motion of the
particle is directed by a wave? De Broglie showed in detail how the
motion of a particle, passing through just one of two holes in
screen, could be influenced by waves propagating through both holes.
And so influenced that the particle does not go where the waves
cancel out, but is attracted to where they co-operate. This idea
seems to me so natural and simple, to resolve the wave-particle
dilemma in such a clear and ordinary way, that it is a great mystery
to me that it was so generally ignored."
J. S. Bell, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics

"...in physics the only observations we must consider are position
observations, if only the positions of instrument pointers. It is a
great merit of the de Broglie-Bohm picture to force us to consider
this fact. If you make axioms, rather than definitions and theorems,
about the "measurement" of anything else, then you commit redundancy
and risk inconsistency."
J. S. Bell, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics

"To outward appearance, the modern world was born of an anti
religious movement: man becoming self-sufficient and reason
supplanting belief. Our generation and the two that preceded it have
heard little of but talk of the conflict between science and faith;
indeed it seemed at one moment a foregone conclusion that the former
was destined to take the place of the latter... After close on two
centuries of passionate struggles, neither science nor faith has
succeeded in discrediting its adversary.
On the contrary, it becomes obvious that neither can develop
normally without the other. And the reason is simple: the same life
animates both. Neither in its impetus nor its achievements can
science go to its limits without becoming tinged with mysticism and
charged with faith."
Pierre Thierry de Chardin, "The Phenomenon of Man"

I opened this appendix with lengthy quotations by John S. Bell, the
main proponent of the Bohemian Mechanics interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics (really, an alternative rather than an interpretation).
The renowned physicist, David Bohm (in the 50s), basing himself on
work done much earlier by de Broglie (the unwilling father of the
wave-particle dualism), embedded the Schrödinger Equation (SE
throughout this article) in a deterministic physical theory which
postulated a non-Newtonian motion of particles.

This is a fine example of the life cycle of scientific theories,
comprised of three phases: Growth, Transitional Pathology, and
Ossification.

Witchcraft, Religion, Alchemy and Science succeeded one another and
each such transition was characterized by transitional pathologies
reminiscent of psychotic disorders. The exceptions are (arguably)
medicine and biology. A phenomenology of ossified bodies of
knowledge would make a fascinating read.

Science is currently in its Ossification Phase. It is soon to be
succeeded by another discipline or magisterium. Other explanations
to the current state of science should be rejected: that human
knowledge is limited by its very nature, that the world is
inherently incomprehensible, that methods of thought and
understanding tend to self-organize to form closed mythic systems
and that there is a problem with the language which we employ to
make our inquiries of the world describable and communicable.

Kuhn's approach to Scientific Revolutions is but one of many to
issues of theory and paradigm shifts in scientific thought and its
resulting evolution. Scientific theories seem to be subject to a
process of natural selection very much as organisms are in nature.

Animals could be thought of as theorems (with a positive truth
value) in the logical system "Nature". But species become extinct
because nature itself changes (not nature as a set of potentials -
but the relevant natural phenomena to which the species are
exposed). Could we say the same about scientific theories? Are they
being selected and deselected partly due to a changing, shifting
backdrop?

Indeed, the whole debate between "realists" and "anti-realists" in
the philosophy of Science can be settled by adopting this single
premise: that the Universe itself is not immutable. By contrasting
the fixed subject of study ("The World") with the transient nature
of Science - anti-realists gained the upper hand.

Arguments such as the under-determination of theories by data and
the pessimistic meta-inductions from past falsity (of
scientific "knowledge") emphasize the transience and asymptotic
nature of the fruits of the scientific endeavor. But such arguments
rest on the implicit assumption that there is some universal,
invariant, truth out there (which science strives to asymptotically
approximate). This apparent problematic evaporates if we allow that
both the observer and the observed, the theory and its subject, are
alterable.

Science develops through reduction of miracles. Laws of nature are
formulated. They are assumed to encompass all the (relevant) natural
phenomena (that is, phenomena governed by natural forces and within
nature). Ex definitio, nothing can exist outside nature - it is all-
inclusive and all-pervasive, or omnipresent (formerly the attributes
of the divine).

Supernatural forces, supernatural intervention, are contradictions
in terms, oxymorons. If some thing or force exists - it is natural.
That which is supernatural - does not exist. Miracles do not only
contravene (or violate) the laws of nature - they are impossible,
not only physically, but also logically. That which is logically
possible and can be experienced (observed), is physically possible.

But, again, we are faced with the assumption of a "fixed
background". What if nature itself changes in ways that are bound to
confound ever-truer knowledge? Then, the very shifts of nature as a
whole, as a system, could be called "supernatural" or "miraculous".

In a way, this is how science evolves. A law of nature is proposed
or accepted. An event occurs or an observation made which are not
described or predicted by it. It is, by definition, a violation of
the suggested or accepted law which is, thus, falsified.
Subsequently and consequently, the laws of nature are modified, or
re-written entirely, in order to reflect and encompass this
extraordinary event. Result: Hume's comforting distinction
between "extraordinary" and "miraculous" events is upheld (the
latter being ruled out).

Extraordinary events can be compared to previous experience -
miraculous events entail some supernatural interference with the
normal course of things (a "wonder" in Biblical terms). It is by
confronting the extraordinary and eliminating its "abnormal"
or "supernatural" attributes that science progresses as a miraculous
activity. This, of course, is not the view of the likes of David
Deutsch (see his book, "The Fabric of Reality").

Back to the last phase of this Life Cycle, to Ossification. The
discipline degenerates and, following the "psychotic" transitional
phase, it sinks into a paralytic state which is characterized by the
following:

All the practical and technological aspects of the dying discipline
are preserved and continue to be utilized. Gradually the conceptual
and theoretical underpinnings vanish or are replaced by the tenets
and postulates of a new discipline - but the inventions, processes
and practical know-how do not evaporate. They are incorporated into
the new discipline and, in time, are erroneously attributed to it,
marking it as the legitimate successor of the now defunct, preceding
discipline.

The practitioners of the old discipline confine themselves to
copying and replicating the various aspects of the old discipline,
mainly its intellectual property (writings, inventions, other
theoretical material). This replication does not lead to the
creation of new knowledge or even to the dissemination of old one.
It is a hermetic process, limited to the ever decreasing circle of
the initiated. Special institutions govern the rehashing of the
materials related to the old discipline, their processing and
copying. Institutions related to the dead discipline are often
financed and supported by the state which is always an agent of
conservation, preservation and conformity.

Thus, the creative-evolutionary dimension of the now-dead discipline
is gone. No new paradigms or revolutions happen. The exegesis and
replication of canonical writings become the predominant activities.
Formalisms are not subjected to scrutiny and laws assume eternal,
immutable, quality.

All the activities of the adherents of the old discipline become
ritualized. The old discipline itself becomes a pillar of the extant
power structures and, as such, is condoned and supported by them.
The old discipline's practitioners synergistically collaborate with
the powers that be: with the industrial base, the military complex,
the political elite, the intellectual cliques in vogue.
Institutionalization inevitably leads to the formation of a (mostly
bureaucratic) hierarchy.

Emerging rituals serve the purpose of diverting attention from
subversive, "forbidden" thinking. These rigid ceremonies are
reminiscent of obsessive-compulsive disorders in individuals who
engage in ritualistic behavior patterns to deflect "wrong"
or "corrupt" thoughts.

Practitioners of the old discipline seek to cement the power of
its "clergy". Rituals are a specialized form of knowledge which can
be obtained only by initiation ("rites of passage"). One's status in
the hierarchy of the dead discipline is not the result of
objectively quantifiable variables or even of judgment of merit. It
is the outcome of politics and other power-related interactions.

The need to ensure conformity leads to doctrinarian dogmatism and to
the establishment of enforcement mechanisms. Dissidents are
subjected to both social and economic sanctions. They find
themselves ex-communicated, harassed, imprisoned, tortured, their
works banished or not published, ridiculed and so on.

This is really the triumph of text over the human spirit. At this
late stage in the Life Cycle, the members of the old discipline's
community are oblivious to the original reasons and causes for their
pursuits. Why was the discipline developed in the first place? What
were the original riddles, questions, queries it faced and tackled?
Long gone are the moving forces behind the old discipline. Its cold
ashes are the texts and their preservation is an expression of
longing and desire for things past.

The vacuum left by the absence of positive emotions is filled by
negative ones. The discipline and its disciples become phobic,
paranoid, defensive, and with a faulty reality test. Devoid of the
ability to generate new, attractive content, the old discipline
resorts to motivation by manipulation of negative emotions. People
are frightened, threatened, herded, cajoled. The world is painted in
an apocalyptic palette as ruled by irrationality, disorderly,
chaotic, dangerous, or even lethal. Only the old discipline stands
between its adherents and apocalypse.

New, emerging disciplines, are presented as heretic, fringe
lunacies, inconsistent, reactionary and bound to regress humanity to
some dark ages. This is the inter-disciplinary or inter-paradigm
clash. It follows the Psychotic Phase. The old discipline resorts to
some transcendental entity (God, Satan, or the conscious intelligent
observer in the Copenhagen interpretation of the formalism of
Quantum Mechanics). In this sense, the dying discipline is already
psychotic and afoul of the test of reality. It develops messianic
aspirations and is inspired by a missionary zeal and zest. The fight
against new ideas and theories is bloody and ruthless and every
possible device is employed.

But the very characteristics of the older nomenclature is in the old
discipline's disfavor. It is closed, based on ritualistic
initiation, and patronizing. It relies on intimidation. The numbers
of the faithful dwindle the more the "church" needs them and the
more it resorts to oppressive recruitment tactics. The emerging
discipline wins by default. Even the initiated, who stand most to
lose, finally abandon the old discipline. Their belief unravels when
confronted with the truth value, explanatory and predictive powers,
and the comprehensiveness of the emerging discipline.

This, indeed, is the main presenting symptom, the distinguishing
hallmark, of paralytic old disciplines. They deny reality. They are
rendered mere belief-systems, myths. They require the suspension of
judgment and disbelief, the voluntary limitation of one's quest for
truth and beauty, the agreement to leave swathes of the map in a
state of "terra incognita". This reductionism, this schizoid
avoidance, the resort to hermeticism and transcendental authority
mark the beginning of the end.


Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant
Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West
Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician,
Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a
United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and
the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in
The Open Directory and Suite101.

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government
of Macedonia.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com