on science

This post title is a bit bold. what i want to say is, what is science and how science works.

i guess many people have idea on the word "science". people may think, "oh, physics, chemistry, biology, social science are science." well, they are right, but it is not so precise.

in fact, science is a name of methodology. there are many ways the understand and explain the world, like religion, like fortune-telling, like meditation, Voodoo. However, none of those are more powerful than science. the power of science comes from the ability to modify the world. while others method, either telling you accept the world or try to change your mind, or fail in changing the world.

in the past, people only know little bit about nature, and of course, feel helpless when facing natural events, like raining, drying, storm, snow, etc. all they can do is, changing their mind, to fit the nature, to make themselves feel good. the nature is unchangeable, and human has to move around it.

Later, in ancient Greek, people found out that, the nature is following some sorts of rule, and those rule can be expressed in mathematics. like the polygon, lines and circle, conic section. the ancient Greek also use the power of mathematics to measure the size of the world!! to found out the missing gold in King's crown. to understand the market, how people sell and trade. and then they use the power of mathematics, basic mechanics, like pulleys and levels, to build gaint building. to change the living environment. After that time, the human is in the central, and natural is moving around us. we no longer have to change ourselves to fit the nature, we can make the nature to fit us. we becomes active, not passive anymore. we can control our faith, not waiting for the nature.

So, what is science? science is a methodology, that, we make hypothesis, we check it by experiment, and we correct the hypothesis and form a theory. in fact, human and even animal do the same things. The basic of science is "try and error". so simple, and cannot be more simpler. we actually, every people use it in everyday!

However, the differences between science and others, like Voodoo or pseudo-science are, the logic and "controlled-experiment". i am not going to talk deep in logic, it is because i am not good at it and i am not a understood it well enough. But, i can point out one common mistake people will make is, say, for example, "when it is raining, people bring umbrella" is equal to "when people bring umbrella, it is raining". most people from this example can see these 2 things are not equal. however, since it is daily issue, people are familiar with. When we are facing un-familiar situation, we are easy to make this mistake.

the "controlled -experiment" is a key for differentiate science and other subject. say, "social-science". in my understanding, social science cannot do any "controlled experiment", it even worse then psychology, as psychology can do controlled experiment to check a theory. basically, for me, social science is little more than statistic + psychology + economy. that is. when people say something "non-science", mostly means, the theory does not checked by a controlled experiment. Say, Fu-shiu, as i said long time ago, it is not science, it may be correctly predict something at sometimes, but that "correct" is not more than tossing a coin and you will get what you want. one more example is, the "myth-buster" in Discovery channel. ok, they do experiment to verify a "myth". but the way to do is not scientific at all. they only do one times and in a very specific condition, without any data but just video. without any theory prediction but just the "myth"prediction. and most important is, those experiment almost cannot be REPEATED! For me, it is just a fun show that prove nothing. but any way, that is a good show.

lets me sum up, science is a methodology to understand the nature, by undeniable logic, by controlled experiment, and by repeatable experiment, to form a theory that is true for anywhere, anytime.

the consequence is.  we can fill out a whole library with scientific knowledge. but it is very hard to fill a bookshelf with religion or Voodoo, or Fu-Shiu. i believe, it is reflecting how the nature is. the nature is very complicated, has alot different varieties. if the the natural knowledge is on the bible or Koran, i will very disappointed as the god made the world so "hea". ( "hea" is a Cantonese slug that means "not putting any effort" )