Posts tagged ‘theory’

November 17, 2009

Explaining the Explanations

For tens of thousands of years our ancestors understood the world through myths, and the pace of change was glacial. The rise of scientific understanding transformed the world within a few centuries. Why? Physicist David Deutsch proposes a subtle answer at Ted.

I differ in one sense that to make assumptions about our so called pre-historic generation had no good rational explanations about our world may not be very correct. for example- vedas had some explanations more correctly noted distance between earth with moon, explanations for evaporation/rain,et. perfectly calculated architectures/construction from olden times means they knew about it not accidentally. maybe they don’t give real reason because they thought it would create controversy or it also may be because we no longer have access to those valid explanations which could have been destroyed with times. or may be earth has been recreated so many time with many climate changes and so there was even more advanced cultivation which was washed away by time.. so while I agree that ancient explanations haven’t always been rational but I can’t believe they knew little. I think they knew more than what we think they knew. ofcourse, I could be wrong but that’s my 2cents.