"What if we're wrong?"
I think this is one of the most undervalued questions in our world today. Science offers a prime example of the limits of knowledge that's considered absolute, as it tries to adjust from year to year, month to month, even day to day to new awareness that once took decades or millennia to comprehend but floods in by the second with today's much more far-reaching technologies. Newton's laws of physics were once the end-all be-all of physical law; if it did not conform to Newton's laws then either your experiment was wrong or your calculations were. What we've learned in recent years to be true instead is that while there's a whole sector of the Universe that does indeed act in the way those laws predict, there are other sectors that do not, in any way; thus the birth of quantum physics, which led to a host of other quantum sciences which allow us to perceive, explain, and understand our Universe in ever-greater detail. Still, there are those scientists who insist that it ended with Newton, and anything that doesn't fit his laws does not exist.
One thing the human mind does better than that of any other animal is extrapolate conclusions, and we have a seemingly insatiable need to explain reasons and circumstances. On a human level it's natural to seek explanations absolving oneself of responsibility for the undesirable while bringing credit for that which we believe to be desirable. When we begin to accept our own explanations or those of others with whom we agree in a given moment as irrevokable truths we stop asking, "What if I'm wrong?" and this cessation of exploration can bring about a whole plethora of avoidable problems.
We hear something about someone, for instance, and take it as true because it fits our current frame of mind; what if we're wrong? How far can the damage from that one missed AssUM(e)ption reach, and is it always only to the detriment of the misperceived person or might it be as much or even more to our own? We pick up a 'fact' from a news story and, again seeing it from within the frame of our own mindset and experience, pass it along without further research or any real understanding of the issues that may or may not be involved; what if we're wrong? How many people may be affected by that faulty information if they, in turn, took our word as gospel, and how many more people did they pass it along to? Too often few or none of the people within those ripples of effect are doing their own research and before we know it there are recommendations, mandates, and even laws being enacted based on mildly to seriously flawed premises.
So the next time we find ourselves saying, "Oh, that can't be true," or "Wow, that's an amazing truth!" or in any other way refuting potential differences to a newly-discovered or currently-held opinion I encourage us all to ask, "What if we're wrong?" We may save ourselves some trouble (or worse) in the long run.
One thing the human mind does better than that of any other animal is extrapolate conclusions, and we have a seemingly insatiable need to explain reasons and circumstances. On a human level it's natural to seek explanations absolving oneself of responsibility for the undesirable while bringing credit for that which we believe to be desirable. When we begin to accept our own explanations or those of others with whom we agree in a given moment as irrevokable truths we stop asking, "What if I'm wrong?" and this cessation of exploration can bring about a whole plethora of avoidable problems.
We hear something about someone, for instance, and take it as true because it fits our current frame of mind; what if we're wrong? How far can the damage from that one missed AssUM(e)ption reach, and is it always only to the detriment of the misperceived person or might it be as much or even more to our own? We pick up a 'fact' from a news story and, again seeing it from within the frame of our own mindset and experience, pass it along without further research or any real understanding of the issues that may or may not be involved; what if we're wrong? How many people may be affected by that faulty information if they, in turn, took our word as gospel, and how many more people did they pass it along to? Too often few or none of the people within those ripples of effect are doing their own research and before we know it there are recommendations, mandates, and even laws being enacted based on mildly to seriously flawed premises.
So the next time we find ourselves saying, "Oh, that can't be true," or "Wow, that's an amazing truth!" or in any other way refuting potential differences to a newly-discovered or currently-held opinion I encourage us all to ask, "What if we're wrong?" We may save ourselves some trouble (or worse) in the long run.
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