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forsythI'm going to be mean to Enya here. Not because I don't like her, I don't even know her. And not because I don't like her music, because for the most part, I do. But it's on in-store play at work, and it illustrates exactly what I'm talking about here. One lyric in particular.
"Who can say why the wind blows, why the water flows, only Time."
Well, no, Enya. Not at all. I can tell you both why the wind blows and why the water flows. Water's simpler. It's gravity. Water flows down from higher places to lower places. And then it evaporates and gets carried back up to the higher places by rain. And the wind blows because the Earth is spinning, and because warm air rises and cool air sinks, so one section gets warmer, it goes up, then air rushes in from all over to replace it.
I know, I know, she was just being poetic. Or something. And I also know the descriptions I gave weren't poetic. That was partly deliberate. And partly laziness. So, let's be poetic, shall we? The water flows because the seas rise up upon the air, then fall as rain in the mountains and seek to return to their home. That's poetic, and true-ish. It doesn't cover the details, but poetry usually doesn't. So how about the wind? The wind comes from the churning of the sky and the rise and fall of mountains of air. Truish, and poetic.
But the deliberate part was to illustrate why the "Gasp! You want to understand something! You have no poetry in your soul, or sense of wonder! Evil!" reaction sometimes works. Because people are looking at things differently. Some people look at the surface of things, and see poetry and beauty and wonder thee, and resent anybody who tries to look past that, saying they're trying to destroy the wonder or beauty or mystery.
Which I understand to an extent, but I'm one of the other kinds of people. There's as much, or more beauty and wonder in understanding things. And seeing how they work. And the truth.
I mean, honestly, which is more awesome? That the sun's a golden ball pushed across the sky by a giant dung beetle, or that it's a hugely gigantic mass of hydrogen held together by its own mass, and so hot it's fusing the hydrogen into other things? That diamonds are the crystallized tears of somebody or other, or that they're carbon that's been squeezed and heated so much they've become the hardest substance on Earth?
There's more to awe than just size, of course. But none of the beauty of a rainbow is destroyed in knowing how they come about. None of the beauty of a flower is lost when you know why plants make flowers. There's no loss of wonder in the universe when you accept it's bigger than just the Earth. That leaves much more room for wonder, really. There's many layers of beauty and wonder, and none of those are destroyed when you understand the other layers.
Heck, it seems to me one of the most wondrous things about the universe, and science, is that we humans can understand so much of it, and model it in ways that work, both for us, and for how the universe works. Out brains evolved on the East African plains to gather food, hide from large creatures with sharp teeth, then to hunt (starting with smaller stuff, then moving up to large creatures with sharp teeth). Three dimensions, running around and throwing sticks and rocks at things. And now we've managed to understand the universe well enough to build a massive network of computers that teenagers can use to bitch about their love life and post which muppet they are. We can build things on scales so tiny our minds can't even properly understand them. And if THAT doesn't fill you with a sense of wonder, you have no poetry in your soul.
"Who can say why the wind blows, why the water flows, only Time."
Well, no, Enya. Not at all. I can tell you both why the wind blows and why the water flows. Water's simpler. It's gravity. Water flows down from higher places to lower places. And then it evaporates and gets carried back up to the higher places by rain. And the wind blows because the Earth is spinning, and because warm air rises and cool air sinks, so one section gets warmer, it goes up, then air rushes in from all over to replace it.
I know, I know, she was just being poetic. Or something. And I also know the descriptions I gave weren't poetic. That was partly deliberate. And partly laziness. So, let's be poetic, shall we? The water flows because the seas rise up upon the air, then fall as rain in the mountains and seek to return to their home. That's poetic, and true-ish. It doesn't cover the details, but poetry usually doesn't. So how about the wind? The wind comes from the churning of the sky and the rise and fall of mountains of air. Truish, and poetic.
But the deliberate part was to illustrate why the "Gasp! You want to understand something! You have no poetry in your soul, or sense of wonder! Evil!" reaction sometimes works. Because people are looking at things differently. Some people look at the surface of things, and see poetry and beauty and wonder thee, and resent anybody who tries to look past that, saying they're trying to destroy the wonder or beauty or mystery.
Which I understand to an extent, but I'm one of the other kinds of people. There's as much, or more beauty and wonder in understanding things. And seeing how they work. And the truth.
I mean, honestly, which is more awesome? That the sun's a golden ball pushed across the sky by a giant dung beetle, or that it's a hugely gigantic mass of hydrogen held together by its own mass, and so hot it's fusing the hydrogen into other things? That diamonds are the crystallized tears of somebody or other, or that they're carbon that's been squeezed and heated so much they've become the hardest substance on Earth?
There's more to awe than just size, of course. But none of the beauty of a rainbow is destroyed in knowing how they come about. None of the beauty of a flower is lost when you know why plants make flowers. There's no loss of wonder in the universe when you accept it's bigger than just the Earth. That leaves much more room for wonder, really. There's many layers of beauty and wonder, and none of those are destroyed when you understand the other layers.
Heck, it seems to me one of the most wondrous things about the universe, and science, is that we humans can understand so much of it, and model it in ways that work, both for us, and for how the universe works. Out brains evolved on the East African plains to gather food, hide from large creatures with sharp teeth, then to hunt (starting with smaller stuff, then moving up to large creatures with sharp teeth). Three dimensions, running around and throwing sticks and rocks at things. And now we've managed to understand the universe well enough to build a massive network of computers that teenagers can use to bitch about their love life and post which muppet they are. We can build things on scales so tiny our minds can't even properly understand them. And if THAT doesn't fill you with a sense of wonder, you have no poetry in your soul.
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Date: 2005-10-15 09:32 pm (UTC)Or, shorter me: "Science is fucking amazing."