Science Again

Having proved that two people read this blog, I soldier on.

At a party on the weekend, someone was talking up how cool science is while stroking a cat.  Conversationally, I said "Wanna hear a limit to science?"  

She stiffened and said very coldly "There are LIMITS to science?!"

I said "No veterinarian or biologist can tell you what's making the sound when cats purr.  Y'wanna know why?"

Everyone wanted to know.  "Because dead cats don't purr, and when you vivisect a cat to find out what's making the sound, it stops."  

The response was "Well, that's not a limit to SCIENCE, that's a limit to our ability to understand science."  That sounded a lot like a limit to scientific method being adequate to uncover facts to me.  Too much of science is about cutting, crushing, smashing, boiling, dissolving, freezing, irradiating or otherwise ruining things to really be an effective way to learn much about living things, while they're still living, anyway.  Maybe that's why we feel we understand the process of a living creature suddenly ceasing to live and gradually turning into dirt, but can't turn dirt into a living creature of any kind, nor do we really understand much about what happens to make matter live or die.

The words "That's a lot like saying 'It's not that there's anything the Pope gets wrong, it's just that we fail to correctly understand his teaching' " were rising toward my throat along with "You realize you're being all religious about science?"  But before I got a word out, she held up a hand and said "And that's all I've got.  I couldn't really argue about it, because I've said more than I can competently argue."

Fair enough, right?

I was going to point out that, rather than viewing numbers, letters, mathematics and science as human tools, created by people and used to understand our world in the same way that religion is, she believes that the universe is in some mystical way, accidentally yet definitely MADE of numbers and inarguably yet coincidentally built out of the magic bedrock that makes up the occult permutations of science.  She appeared ready to punish the unorthodox.  

I doubt she thinks the universe is make of words and letters, but she wouldn't be the first person to tell me confidently that the universe is made out of numbers, and is built out of scientific principles, but no one built it, nor invented science.  Science and number are star stuff, and are behind the mystery of life itself, by happenstance, the story goes.  That's starting to sound nearly as metaphysical as quantum mechanics!