Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant". Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true." ~ http://edge.org/
Simplicity is elegance a math teacher once told me. That premise is holding up. Each year, John Brockman, the manager of Edge.org puts forward an open-ended question to the world's greatest scholars and intellectuals and to those of us who are just nosy, who are used to responding to background noise. (I'm used to exercising while talk radio blares in the background.) This year, he asked, "What is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?" The number one answer was Darwin's Theory of Evolution as much for its simplicity as for anything else. Eureka! Never before had so much been explained by so little. That's rigor, elegance, beauty!
Einstein's Theory of Relativity came in second. The other day, I wondered whether space is infinite. I actually don't know exactly what Einstein said about that, but I do know that 'gravity' does point toward an infinite space, one that expands, a force that rips objects apart and forces (or forms) relationships between or among them by pushing or pulling away or toward or both simultaneously. Gravity is why earth remains a sphere, spins and remains in its orbit--why space-time is bent. Relativity is easy to understand once you understand that everything is defined relative to something else. God is the one exception. God is the beginning and the end. Seems irrelevant, but its not. Here's a very simple example: I exist as a black woman, because there are white women, Asian and Latino women, etc. and I do not exist as one of them. My existence is as much defined by what I am not as much as it is by what I am. That's relativity. Formulae work because there are relationships between variables and constants. Wow! What we can do with algebraic rules, points, triangles-- especially, and shadows!
Now, this "theory" I think still needs work, but maybe we're close. The third theory is called How the Brain Works. We do know quite a bit about neuropathways and the chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, that are important to the brain's functioning, but we do not know how much of each chemical the brain needs. People who have bipolar disorder, for instance, may have too much or not enough of a chemical, for various stretches of time, sometimes very short periods of time. We also know that we are born with certain pathways open and that some people have pathways that are more integrated than others. I looked at this issue somewhat when studying schemata, models or guides. One thing I know is that the more you know the more potential you have to know and the faster you learn, because knowledge is accumulative. Once you have a foundational understanding, information, of the more theoretical variety, becomes easier to grasp because you can see the connections. It appears that learning new information and making new connections realigns and/or increases the number of neuropathways, as well. What's interesting, however, is that your ability to perform might not be improved, especially if you're not very kinesthetic. So it is possible to have a much higher verbal (I'm using it to mean abstract) "IQ" than performance "IQ". Also, I'm going to posit that IQ can change. Those who claim that it can't are just happy that they are at the top of the heap. I read an article recently that talked about how genius can and does show up at anytime, sometimes not until adulthood. Was the person just lazy all through childhood and adolescence? It is possible that a non-supportive environment can be a distraction. I believe that some people are born with extravagant neuropathways. We see that in child geniuses; those children nearly come out of the womb speaking in complete sentences. Education matters little to people who are at the extremes of intelligence. However, I also believe that through desire, curiosity, work, and patience neuropathways can be built over time. Act as if... Fake it until you make it... is what it takes. It looks like other environmental factors--stress, education, attitudes--can help to define those pathways. So our institutions--families, churches, schools... help to shape our brains. The purpose of those institutions were originally to reduce stress via making society more manageable and acceptable behavior a no-brainer. However, as the number and diversity of those institutions increased, so did competition and stress. Stress may also cause the brain to produce too much of a chemical or not enough. We seem to also know that certain experiences can become hard-coded in the brain--in the amygdala, much like firmware is encoded on a computer chip--software applications that tell the computer how to behave. That seems to be the case with post-traumatic stress disorder. If there is not an early intervention, if the brain's ability to cope gets overwhelmed, post-traumatic stress disorder often will occur. That is why keeping traumatic secrets is a no no. You're only as sick as your secrets. That is why people of childhood abuse suffer so greatly.
I'm not sure what I think of the other theories. Emergent Phenomena reads like natural selection and relativity to me. Both theories already state that we and the universe are emergent phenomena.
How groups amplify individuals? Well, we already know that individuals behave differently in groups and mobs. But I've always thought that could be explained by the "fact" that we are social creatures, have more self-doubt when in groups, and feel less powerful, as in we have less efficacy.
Now one of these theories does intrigue me: We are who we pretend to be. In 12 Step program, we are often told to "act as if," especially when we are confused about what to do or how to behave early on. We're told to act as if we know what we are doing. Acting as if is a form of practice. Practice makes yours. The behavior you practice becomes yours. To become a non-smoker, I had to practice not smoking. As a matter of fact, I'm still practicing, still pretending that I don't smoke. The article uses a quote from Kurt Vonnegut,"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46005937/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.TxOQFvnfNXU
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