Science as Story Telling and Story Revision
(article, web resources, on-line forum)
Linear science | Seriously loopy science |
Science as body of facts established by specialized fact-generating people and process
Science as successive approximations to Truth
| Science as ongoing process of getting it less wrong, potentially usable by and contributed to by everyone
Science as ongoing making of observations, intepreting/summarizing, making new observations, making new summaries Science as process of inquiry into anything, one which everybody is equiped to do/can get better at/be further empowered by, and contribute to - a way of making sense of what is but even more of exploring what might yet be |
If science is as much about creation as discovery then the "crack"is a feature, not a bug ... and differences among people are an asset to the process rather than a problem or an indication it isn't working |
Scientific stories are frequently efforts to summarize the widest possible range of observations, always motivate new observations and hence new stories, should never be understood as "authoritative" or "believed in", do not compete with or invalidate other stories.
Key issues about scientific stories
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Which of the following stories do you prefer?
Science = open-ended transactional cyclic observation/interpretation/creation; being wrong and conflict an important part of it; give up "definiteness" for usefulness and openness (pass it on).
Where do we get the ability to inquire? to make observatons? tell/share/compare stories? revise hypotheses/stories? |
The Brain as Scientist/Story Teller
Even though its common knowledge these days, it never ceases to amaze me that all the richness of our mental life - all our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts, our ambitions, our love life, our religious sentiments and even what each of us regards as his own intimate private self - is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in your head, in your brain. There is nothing else.
Vilayanur Ramachandran, 2003 | The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain With ease - and You - beside-
The Brain is deeper than the sea -
The Brain is just the weight of God - Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) |
Brain = Behavior ... a true story? a good story?
The Brain as Designed to Carry Out Process (Its All We've Got, Bipartite, and Seriously Loopy)
The Linear Brain | The Loopy Brain with Semi-autonomy and Story Telling |
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Semi-autonomy and expectation Distributed organization and conflict resolution Observing and story telling ("If a tree falls ..." and its importance) Bipartite, interacting brain |
Trying it out ...
Science = open-ended transactional inquiry/creation Brains designed by evolution to participate in open-ended transactional inquiry/creation, using differences/conflict Enjoy being a scientist (professional or otherwise) |