Benjamin Cain
1 min readFeb 10, 2023

--

You say, "Obviously we live in a place in which natural patterns exist."

Sure, but scientists are in the business of explaining patterns, not just confirming that they exist. Scientists explain patterns with certain methods rather than others. The question is whether those methods will reach some satisfying end point or whether they'll run into paradoxes or brute facts which seem inexplicable. Are there infinite layers of naturalness or does naturalness come from something unnatural (scientifically inexplicable)?

Pragmatically, we can hope that scientific methods will always work well enough, even as we push out to the furthest reaches of the universe. But it's also possible that with black holes, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang, we reach things that can't strictly be explained. Of course, we'll keep trying, and technology will develop to enable us to perform more decisive experiments. I just think it's worth contemplating the possible limits of science.

--

--

Benjamin Cain
Benjamin Cain

Written by Benjamin Cain

Ph.D. in philosophy / Knowledge condemns. Art redeems. / https://benjamincain.substack.com / https://ko-fi.com/benjamincain / benjamincain8@gmailDOTcom

No responses yet