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What do you consider
the important insights from science, that you would like to know
about as part of an effective search for meaning in your life?
I think, first of all, when it comes to examining these insights,
most important is your perspective on them. It is the questions
you ask about them, it is how you attempt to apply them in a real
way to your life, that matters. And considering this, all major
and minor insights from science can help you on your search.
[Yes - I think the way to look at it is
that we all have a worldview which is the framework within which
we make most of our choices, which guides our actions. We have some
sort of framework even if science has nothing to do with it - or
if we construct the framework without being aware of it at all.
So the change in perspective we want to produce is one which sets
up a channel for all of these major and minor insights from science
to be seen as providing information directly relevant to the process
of trying on different worldviews to see what fits best, and modifying
them to fit better with our experience and knowledge. This is something
like what we were talking about in extending the scientific method
- having it include this assimilation process. In some ways it’s
simply a matter of keeping in mind the purpose of learning science
- to tell us OUR PLACE in the scheme of things. If we look at any
bit of science in those terms, it will aid our search in some way.
But most science is not really practiced from that perspective.]
But I know there are some ideas out there that really speak to the
questions: where do I come from, what am I made of, where am I going?
But, how do you use these insights to answer why? Why this
is the way it is and why these things happened and these laws of
nature are the way they are?
[One way to think about the selection
of these “key insights” is that they are the broad-brush
concepts that lay out the overall structure within which everything
else happens. For example, the concept of evolution seems
central - nature does not seem to know exactly what it is doing
- it tries things out, discards them, invents new ways of doing
things. This process has been going on for billions of years. And
this exploration going on in nature overall maps directly into our
own consciousness in our lives - we feel uncertain, we try out career
paths and approaches to getting meaning and much simpler things
like what to eat and where to live and what hobbies to be involved
in. Everything is an experiment and we feel it within our thoughts
as well as seeing it in the overall process of nature.
The uniformity and stability of the laws of nature is another such
foundational concept. Somehow whatever is telling my watch (and
my cells) to tick at a certain rate out here in Hillsboro is telling
your watch and cells to tick the same way over in Portland. etc.
Another one is the coexistence of both free choice and constraints
- I can choose many things, yet somehow nature also imposes many
constraints - I cannot go forever without food or sleep, though
I can choose to ignore hunger or tiredness for awhile.]
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* But, one thing at a time here. The questions I have that I think
science can and/or has answered, that really matter to me are mostly
and mainly along the lines of:
* How do I relate on a physical level to the environment around
me? How do my actions or mere existence affect and influence it
and vice versa? Do I seem to be a necessary and integral part?
Am I inherently detrimental to my environment or beneficial.
[This is the key point of contact, I think,
between the perspective of science, and the immediacy of daily life.
I am a product of things I did not choose, did not have control
over. Yet I am immediately aware of having choices, of the need
to make decisions about what to do next. I feel a strong need to
make these choices be in harmony with whatever “overall plan”
is behind the forces that brought me to this point, the point where
I exist and am conscious of having choices to make. So I feel compelled
to try and figure out something about the overall plan, in order
to make decisions that are true to it. If I had no control over
anything, then I would not care so much about knowing the overall
plan of nature, because I would not need it in order to make good
choices - they’d already be programmed in. On the other hand,
if I had COMPLETE freedom, I also wouldn’t care so much about
understanding the plan of nature. In that case, I could make my
own plan, without feeling tied to an external one. But we’re
caught in between these two extremes: uncertain and free to choose,
but also aware that we’re a part of something very important
that we did not set up, which we feel obligated to remain true to.
]
I want the answers, science could help me out. I want to know why
the answer is what it is. Why this system is, and is good, which
it must be if nature allows it to exist. With these questions, I'm
hoping the answers will tell me something about my consciousness
and will. Does my apparent free will have a part to play in this
system? Is it an integral, necessary part or just a chance occurrence?
I want to use science to ask the question is anything in this
world superfluous?
[In one sense, that’s what a worldview
does for us. It defines for us which things matter fundamentally,
and which things are superflous, irrelevant, or distractions.]
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If science can find a way to prove that everything fills
a necessary role, [Or which things do
and do not fill necessary roles? ]and without it things
could be very different-I don't want to say worse because it is
so difficult and I think arrogant to think you know what's best
for the universe. It is something I shy away from the kind of think
that is a necessary part of human nature-that helps the world around-can
science answer this? I don't know how science can answer all these
questions. But I think with a change in approach-but just as logical
and valid, science could help.
[I agree completely - science surely won’t
answer all these questions, but I think it has information that
is crucial for anyone who wants to attack the questions with any
chance of success.]
These are the kinds of questions I first think of that science could
help me answer to find meaning in life. Ultimately, I need to know
that the force that put these elements I’m made of into motion
as me, did it for reason. Now what are the possible reasons that
science could help to identify? I looked at these reasons earlier,
but all down the line of questions is-why life? If I am here to
perpetuate this motion and help it along then why? What can science
do to help me answer this question, to give me a reason to try,
something to have faith then something that tells me this is how
it is supposed to be and this is good.
[Yes, this is what I see as the underlying
driving force in working on all this. I want to have some kind of
notion in my mind that I can believe in, that tells me what we’re
(meaning the universe, including us) trying to do, what we’re
striving and struggling for, that I can throw myself into that really
matters. Obviously these reasons will not just fall out of the science
- but science is needed in order to help us see the framework, within
which we can construct such reasons for ourselves. It needs to describe
a universe which has a place within its structure for those reasons,
so that we can feel free to pursue them without feeling the universe
is telling us that it’s an illusion even to pursue them.]
Now, I don't know for sure, but I think this is where science has
to really change its attitude. It has to realize that all it can
do is point to the general direction of the answer because that
answer is not that simple. Here is where science proving that human
free will and consciousness is an integral part of the universe
on the level of interaction with ecosystems and it takes an understanding
that these concepts and relationships go on many levels, like energy
through the food chain, like quantum mechanics and astrophysics
. Science needs
to think like that if it is going to help us find meaning. If it
is going to say to us that, hey this apparent mystery of why life?
Is good and right and you should be happy about it-and go on and
do good in your life.
*For me to find meaning, I need science to show me that what
I can observe and feel and believe on this level, right here buying
an apple at the market is telling me something about the meaning
of my life on every level.
[Tying everyday actions into the broader
perspective of patterns and insights. This is exactly the kind of
thing we need to try to emphasize - energy flow is one good way
to do this - energy is a common theme underlying many of our actions
- like buying and eating an apple.]
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I think science can and does do this if you look at it the right
way. So I want scientists from all different disciplines to get
together and talk about how patterns repeat, and what it could mean.
And they will have examples and I'd like to see them. This could
help me find some real meaning and give me faith that this is good.
That is what I need in order to have an effective search for meaning.
[Yes, I think this is exactly what we
need. Yet, it doesn’t happen very much because most people
(including scientists) don’t think of providing this perspective
as a major function of science. This would make a good theme to
organize a conference around.]
In writing this, I've realized that it is a very important and effective
question to help me in my search. I think that posing newcomers
to the institute this question could really get them thinking the
right way and would give them clear objectives. I envision a workshop
where everybody does this and afterwards talk about it and make
something of a master list of questions that they need the
answers to. Then if it were a long-term study group they could break
up and seek the answers - to come together again.
[This is a great idea - maybe a good topic
for a weekend workshop? It could also be a web-based, interactive
workshop at some point. We could set up forms on the web for submitting
your answers to the questions, and then build that into a discussion
forum.]
I also think that this question, “What do you need to know,
that science might be able to answer, to have an effective or successful
search for meaning?” is just a great way to hook people. It
makes it feel more interactive. I think ideas should be proposed
with more questions, questions with no right answer.
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