Monday, February 3, 2014

Query

Quantum mechanics emphasizes the effect of the observer. Could this notion be "expanded" to take into consideration the historical period and the technological-level of the observer? Hence, observations and interpretations of the subjective phenomena of space and time are influenced by the level of technology and the level of scientific understanding possessed by the observer? But harder scientific phenomena like change are not influenced...? One of the "features" of modern skeptical-empirical science is that there is a place for not knowing. That is, we can say we know "something" is happening, but we don't necessarily have to know what that something is to do science. I seem to recall Locke came up with this idea when he was studying to be a physician, and when confronted with the human body he acknowledged that there were obviously many elaborate structures as well as many complex processes taking place within the human body that would be useful to know about, and we should of course endeavor to find them out, but meanwhile what can we do to save the patient?

2 comments:

ilTassista Marino said...

Hence, observations and interpretations of the subjective phenomena of space and time are influenced by the level of technology and the level of scientific understanding possessed by the observer?

I would answer yes, absolutely. But also the other way round: the "objective" phenomena of space and time are influenced by the "subjective" level of scientific understanding, etc. In practice, the universe actually _becomes_ more complex because we make it so.

Carter Kaplan said...

I cannot disagree with you.