Will scientists studying the nature of matter&energy,admit that somethings about the universe are unknowable?

Question

The Q above is the headline Q for the following expanded Q I really wanted to ask but couldn't, because of Q-box constraints:

"When will the day come when scientists studying the nature of matter and energy, admit to themselves, and to eveyone else, that there are somethings that are believed or reasoned to exist but are scientifically unknowable because they, whatever things they are, are undetectable and unmeasurable by the physical methods and procedures of science?

file TWH 08042006

tom, please delete your post, it makes unfounded assumptions and it also conveys the idea that you are a religious bigot who thinks that being one is a right..

Answer 1

No, scientists will never admit it, even though it's true. The problem is, there's not really any way to prove that something like that is impossible. You can only prove something to be possible by an experiment. And new experiments are being made all the time. So there is no way to prove that there will never be an experiment invented to explain whatever it is that you were studying.

Answer 2

Not too long ago a mathematical proof was presented that proved that not everything in the field of maths is provable.
How the Universe works seems to be very mathematical so the suspicion is that there will be some things unknowable.
many Scientists are ready to admit this however we may never know exactly what things they are or what depth of knowledge will be the limit. Still the mathmeticians I mentioned earlier are still using many things that are unproven but work. And that is exactly what scientists and engineers do now as well. Theories are just suspicions any way. Not much has been proven in science for a long time we just keep using what works in a consistent way with theory. Perhaps theory and reasoned beliefs are another way of knowing; a little like the esoterics keep telling us.

Perhaps one of the unknowables is what is unknowable?

Answer 3

Because that's stupid.

We used to think that life spontaneously grew out of nothing. That maggots could grow from rotting meat was proof of it. Sealing up the containers proved that wrong.

There used to be theories that light, because it has wavelike properties, travelled in an ether. Various experiments proved that wrong.

There used to be a huge backlash against Quantum Mechanics as something incomplete, or just completely wrong due to its dependence on uncertainty. The math of Quantum Mechanics nowadays is being used to predict and study more phenomena than people can even imagine (e.g. tunneling, quantum computing).

We learn more and more about the universe as we keep studying it, and as we learn, it gives us more and more new secrets (dark energy, dark matter, higgs boson) that we are perplexed by.

But what's the point of sitting around saying "maybe we just can't figure it out" when we have been continuously doing so for the better half of the past millenia, and are closer (and at the same time further) than ever to a unified theory of everything?

Answer 4

Science has done that repeatedly. As a matter of fact, tyhe big Bang is not the origin of the universe, but a point in "time" where the universe went through a change and the laws of physics began to apply.

Actually, it has been the religious among us wqho claim to know the reasons why everything is. That's never been science. Scientist will tell you that for every question you answer, you only get two more questions to replace it.

Answer 5

No, and this is just nature of science. Scientists believe everything can be understood in terms of mathematics.

Lot of people once thought that we're done in science. That We have figured out everything science could and came along things like quantum mechanics and field theories... etc. Scientists saying something is unknowable is equivalent to religion without a god or core beliefs. That doesn't make lot of sense.

Answer 6

Ok this question really stems from quantum physics and a mixture of kind of question that is very cicular. The statment itself cannot be proved by any form of logic. Because if we do not have a tool to detect something that might or might not exist we do not know if it does or does not exist. i.e. that is a bad quote. Even quantum mechanics will tell you that as soon as you measure something you change that thing with which you are measuring. Because, if you know its momentum then you do not not its position, and if you know its position then you change its position. So of course we have to admit that somethings are unknowable because we do not know of them.

Answer 7

Strictly speaking, this may not answer your question; but your question sparked a long lost memory that I'd like to share.

In a physics course I took, the instructor was going on about The Big Bang, and I asked, "What happened before the Big Bang?"

He said that any evidence was destroyed by the bang itself, and therefore the question was meaningless and had no right to be asked. I thought that rather presumptuous; and it reminded me of something St. Augustine wrote in the Confessions.

Apparently someone once asked him what God was doing before he created the Heavens and the Earth, and Augustine's reply was, "He was creating Hell for people who ask questions like yours."

Striking similarity? It's food for thought, I think. Thanks for helping me to dredge up a memory.

Answer 8

I had to change this, because I think they do admit that some things can not be known, but that they are beyond the scope of science. Just reading first few pages of Brief History of Time will prove this.

Answer 9

i think that almost any scientist you ask will admitt that there are things that we don't understand. and things that are unmeasurable to us at this point. science is the persuit of understanding the world around us. i'm actually kind of insulted by you're question. are you some religiouse asshole trying to belittle science? just so you know, scientists are verry aware of our limitations, and don't make unjustifiable conclusions.

Answer 10

Every new answer raises new questions. And this cycle is infinite, because the universe is infinite. But a true scientist will never admit defeat.