If there are limits to what can be known, then we need to be very cautious in believing that what is known is the whole truth. And if it is not the whole truth then it may even be untrue, and just a good story that seems true under certain specific circumstances.
If there are limits to what can be known then it seems that we need to be very cautious in believing that what is known is the whole truth. If it is not the whole truth then it may even be untrue and just a good story that may seem to be true only under certain specific circumstances.
The rapidity with which science has advanced has created the idea that there is clockwork-like certainty around the way the universe goes about its business and that this can and will be measured with a great degree of accuracy. Although this idea is held by many scientists, there is an increasing understanding that within nature there is also a great deal of uncertainty and unpredictability . Bruce West, a physicist at the University of California, and Ary Goldberger , a Professor at the Harvard Medical School in an article in the American Scientist state: “The variable, complicated structure and behaviour of living systems seem as likely to be verging on chaos as converging on some regular pattern.”
[Turbulent mirror John Briggs and F.David Peat Harper and Row,New York 1989 page 14]
The fact is that turbulence, irregularity and unpredictability are now recognized to be everywhere and will constantly confound all our efforts to make absolute sense of the world. Chaos theory as formulated by physicists is not suggesting that the world is chaotic, but only that so much is happening in every moment of time that any attempt to predict the future is fraught with problems and ‘unpredictability’. Our attempts to predict the weather is a perfect example of this fact. Some scientists have even abandoned the idea that a ‘universal field theory’ will eventually be found which will incorporate all the known laws of science into one universal theory in which ‘the mind of God’ will become a formula on a piece of paper.
All this has important relevance to the science of medicine and may explain the variability in medical trials and why one may never find absolute answers. In the meantime the call is for ‘evidenced-based medicine’ and this article questions whether this is possible in a very real sense or is just another scientific dream.
Order and disorder
Order suggests that everything is in the right place and functioning well. (Collins dictionary). What is the secret of that order and where are the controls and how does disorder arise within that system? The whole idea behind the concept of a Universal Field theory which would explain everything is that there is order in the universe.
Chaos theory does not suggest that chaos exists but only that there are so many things happening in every moment of time that it becomes impossible to measure them all. So despite the apparent randomness and chaos there appears to be an underlying order. It was to this order that Einstein referred when he commented that God does not play dice with the universe.
It was Edward Lorenz the meteorologist who introduced the concept of Chaos theory and the ‘butterfly effect’. One evening he was doing some research on weather prediction using some theoretical numbers to the 6th decimal place. Later he decided to check these figures and run the numbers through again. Because he was in a hurry he shortened the numbers from 6 decimal places to 3 decimal places. To his astonishment the computer came up with a completely different weather prediction. He made the statement then that began to epitomise the new science .
“I knew right then that if the real atmosphere behaved like this (mathematical model), long-range weather forecasting was impossible.” He realized that if the results were so far apart (when comparing figures to the third or sixth decimal place) “that complex non linear dynamic systems such as the weather and man must be so incredibly sensitive that the smallest details can affect them” Small changes having massive effects. A butterfly flapping its wings in New York may cause a storm in San Francisco. On a weather map, a meteorologist is unable to predict which irregularity will explode into a storm. So while there appears to be an underlying order there are so many factors involved and such sensitivity that prediction is impossible.
Cause and effect
The conventional viewpoint is that for every effect there is a preceding cause. This linear way of observation and scientific investigation is often referred to as the Newtonian approach. Linear physics suggests a universe run by underlying laws which govern the way everything functions. A study of these laws would eventually define the workings of the universe.
‘Nature and Natures laws lay hid in night
God said, Let Newton in! And all was light.”
Alexander Pope an 18th century English poet.
Quantum mechanics, however, introduced scientists to the fact that non linear dynamics is a fact of life and that cause and effect were not so clearly related.
“…in the nonlinear world – which includes most of our real world - exact prediction is both practically and theoretically impossible. Nonlinearity has dashed the reductionistic dream.” [Briggs.L and Peat D Turbulent mirror page 24 see above for full information]
‘…….May God us keep
from single Vision and Newton’s sleep”
-William Blake.
Most practitioners today would recognize that there is in fact no single cause for ill health . Bacteria do not cause tonsillitis without there being a susceptibility. The susceptibility is dependent on numerous factors including genetic, environmental and emotional/mental factors. The ability of the body to respond and the way it responds is also dependent on a whole range of factors. An attack of tonsillitis is a highly complex reaction between the individual system and all that keeps it healthy, and the invading bacteria.
There are in fact so many factors involved that one cannot strictly speaking talk of a cause, but multiple factors in a highly complex system. Biological systems are in addition open systems which means that they are not separate from the environment but are open to environmental factors. These latter factors include not only a host of toxins in the environment but also many others such as the noise level, electromagnetic pollution, weather conditions, building syndrome conditions, underground water, cosmic conditions and many other unknown factors. These unknown factors themselves may be vitally important and condition the way the living system responds.
The fact that biological systems are open systems also means that in some known and unknown ways that system is connected to the world and even the universe around it. This connection is essential to its survival.
