The Midlife Crisis of Science

To preface, I value science. I value most outcomes of science. The act-of-science and its outcomes in general represent very creative and magnificent acts in their own right.

I’m concerned for science in general, however — concerned for the scientific community, and those deeply involved with it. And, I’m concerned for those of us sitting outside of science looking in. That’s most of us using scientific outcomes, reading about its latest developments, theories, proofs, etc.

Science right now is our guiding light. It is our reality arbiter — our current judge of reality standing in a place once exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church (for westerners). The current Roman Catholic Church, in contrast to its colorful past, has become quite secondary to life — it has lost its world dominance as the sole arbiter of reality.

Science might be next. In the future we may look back and see that it followed in the historical footsteps of the Roman Catholic Church. What once was a primary source on reality’s truth, now a secondary source. Whether it knows it or not, science is dealing with its own midlife crisis right now.

For science as we think of it to persist, to survive into the wise-old-stage of existence, it must expand its definition of reality. It must be brave enough to explore deeper truths, deeper than the skin of physical reality. I question science’s ability to evolve and adapt to other frameworks. The Roman Catholic Church could not adapt to a new framework (physical science), and it was subsequently reduced as a source of truth. We reduced it in time because we recognized that what once seemed a legitimate source of truth appeared shallow in the light of science. Science said there was more to it all, and we agreed.

However, there were other mass-accepted frameworks in the past than the Roman Catholic Church and [physical] science. It would be naive to think that we are not headed for additional mass-accepted frameworks in the future. Can science survive its midlife crisis and adapt to inevitable new frameworks…? Ideally science could be the harbinger of the next framework, but it may not be up to the task.

That task may be up to us, you and me.

What could the next framework be? Possibly a framework that values and explores consciousness and private / personal reality… The exploration of this next framework would take place not with the expensive tools and particle colliders of science, but with the one “tool” that is inherent to every being — consciousness.