David Peat

Pausing the Cosmos 201to a barrier and can go no further that a paradigm begins to breakdown. That is when a true scientific revolution becomes possible.During the early years of the twentieth century physicists struggledto integrate the new discoveries about atomic spectra, quanta of energy,and the structure of the atom. In case after case, their thinkingwas confined within the paradigm of classical physics, while at the sametime making some modification to existing theory. Even Niels Bohr, inhis first attempt at an atomic theory, grafted new insights about quantaonto the old idea of classical orbits. It was only when Heisenberg brokewith the traditional way of seeing things that modern quantum theorywas born.The same applied to the anomaly of the orbit of Mercury that violatesNewton’s laws of motion. In their desire to hang on to theNewtonian paradigm, physicists attempted to account for Mercury’sorbit in terms of gravitational perturbations arising from irregularitiesin the shape of the sun. It was only with Einstein’s revolutionary ideaof relativity that this problem could be resolved and incorporated intoa new way of thinking.It is always possible to save an existing theory by grafting on moreand more assumptions and corrections. At the time of Copernicus, forexample, astronomers were still trying to save the Ptolemaic earth-centeredsolar system by adding in epicycles within epicycles. In the endthese corrections became so messy and arbitrary that it was clear that arevolutionary new gaze was needed.As we move into this new century we realize we have been guilty ofoversimplifying the world in so many fields of knowledge. We havebeen looking at nature and ourselves through the convenient lenses oftheories that present the cosmos to us in limited ways. Now we acknowledgethe inherent restrictions of any theory. We recognize thatnature is complex in its details, unpredictable, and often uncontrollable.What is true for the natural world applies equally to human beingsand their societies. It is for this reason that our entire society needsto pause. Notions of continued human progress and development mustbe carefully reexamined if society is to be founded on wise values andenriching approaches.