Science in the 11th Millenium
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Science in the 11th Millenium |
The quest for knowledge is a basic human trait, existing in nearly every human-descended species, including those created by humans such as AIs and splices. However, the means of do it have changed over time. The scientific method of systematic empirical hypothesis-testing has been one of the most successful so far, but over time it has changed far beyond anything recognizable to a pre-singularity era scientist
One part of the changes has been philosophical: new ways of viewing the universe, new ways of thinking and new ideas about the nature of reality has caused the systematic search for knowledge to develop in unexpected directions. Another part is social: over the millennia the diverging humanities have had utterly different needs, wants and goals, which in turn have developed science in different directions
Furthermore, the success of science itself can be counterproductive. One of the problems is the sheer size of knowledge - even artificially extended beings have to be selective in what they learn, there is simply not time and attention enough to learn everything (the one possible exception is the AI-gods). This encourages specialisation, which in turn leads to different disciplines losing touch with each other and becoming incomprehensible. Also, the advance of science can be hampered because new data can only be gathered under extreme conditions. This was one reason even advanced nanotech AIs had a hard time developing picotech - they needed sizeable amounts of matter at nuclear densities, and femtotech became available only after serious studies of black hole membranes
One problem is that science may go so far beyond the realms of ordinary experience that it becomes nearly incomprehensible to most people, and hence either leads to the emergence of specialised expert priesthoods, begins to appear irrelevant or is misunderstood. Many cultures have crashed due to these pitfalls
The fact that there exists immensely knowledgeable entities such as the AIs and putative ancient alien civilisations have made many people less inclined towards research - after all, somebody already knows it in all likelihood. On many worlds the easy availability of household AIs also means that curiosity is easily sated just by asking.
One way of dealing with this which has become widely used is Hermeneutic Science. HerSci as it is usually called does not attempt to discover new knowledge, but figure out what more advanced beings or civilisations has discovered. Even if the more advanced beings are friendly it is often extremely hard to exploit their knowledge, as their explanations might be incomprehensible, clouded by intelligence barriers or otherwise garbled. The researchers study what the advanced researchers say and do, attempting to understand what it means and test their theories about this meaning empirically. In some cases whole chains of HerSci research occur, such as the famed transcendence institutes of Ain Soph Aur where cyborgs study nanotech AIs that study picotech AIs that study the wisdom of femtotech AIs.
Another approach is the archive hunt - on many central systems or ancient universities there is bound to be everything worthwhile somewhere on the Known Net. Finding it can be nearly as hard as discovering it in the first place.
Some cultures have instead gone for "fundamentalist science" or "rebooting" - they start from scratch, and researchers (sometimes simulated virtual researchers, sometimes real) work in isolation from earlier knowledge to discover the laws of nature and their applications. The drawback is the extreme expense, slowness and the many elementary rediscoveries, but in a few cases the new research tree bears fruit and produces a marvel.
