首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Is science infinite? Can it keep giving us profound insights into the world forever? Or is it already bumping into limits? In hi
Is science infinite? Can it keep giving us profound insights into the world forever? Or is it already bumping into limits? In hi
admin
2022-09-23
1.2K+
问题
Is science infinite? Can it keep giving us profound insights into the world forever? Or is it already bumping into limits? In his 2011 book The Beginning of Infinity physicist David Deutsch made the case for boundlessness. When I asked him about consciousness, he replied: "I think nothing worth understanding will always remain a mystery. And consciousness seems apparently worth understanding. "
At a meeting I just attended in Switzerland, " The Mystery of Human Consciousness, " another famous British physicist, Martin Rees, challenged Deutsch’s optimism. In that essay Rees calls The Beginning of Infinity "provocative and excellent" but disputes Deutsch’s central claim that science is boundless. Science "will hit the buffers (缓冲区) at some point, " Rees warns.
There are two reasons why this might happen. The optimistic one is that we clean up and understand certain areas (such as atomic physics) to the point that there’s no more to say. A second, more worrying possibility is that we’ll reach the limits of what our brains can grasp. There might be concepts, crucial to a full understanding of physical reality. Efforts to understand very complex systems, such as our own brains, might well be the first to hit such limits. Perhaps complex collectives of atoms, whether brains or electronic machines, can never know all there is to know about themselves.
The riddle of consciousness is a synecdoche for the riddle of humanity. What are we, really? For most of our history, religion has given us the answer. Most modern scientists reject these religious explanations, but they cannot agree on an alternative. They have proposed a bewildering variety of answers to the question of what we really are.
Science will never resolve these disagreements and converge on a single, true theory of what we are, for two reasons. One is that we will never have a "consciousness meter, " an objective means of measuring consciousness in non-human things. The other is that we are too varying, too creative, to be captured by single theory. Science itself keeps transforming us, with technologies as diverse as brain implants, genetic therapy and ideas as diverse as queer theory and integrated information theory.
To be human means to be a work in progress.
Deutsch’s claim that science is infinite also has a contradiction at its core. He wants science to solve the deepest mysteries, like consciousness, and yet to have more mysteries to solve, forever. That is a radical assertion about the structure of nature, which to my mind reflects wishful thinking rather than hard-headed realism.
Deutsch is both wrong and right. He is wrong that science can solve every mystery, and especially consciousness. We will never understand, once and for all, who we are. But Deutsch is right that science is potentially infinite, if infinite means never-ending. It is precisely because we can never achieve total self-knowledge that we will keep seeking it forever.
The real reason for science to "hit the buffers" may be that________.
选项
A、science will inevitably experience its bottleneck period
B、the cognitive ability of humanity cannot be boundless
C、people are over-optimistic about the development of science
D、complicated systems are unable to be fully understood
答案
B
解析
由题干中的hit the buffers定位到原文第二段最后一句和第三段。事实细节题。本题考查科学“进入缓冲区”的原因。第三段提到了两个可能的原因,第一个是我们已经将一些领域理清并理解,达到了言尽于此的地步,而第二个原因是人类将会达到大脑认知的极限,故答案为B。A“科学将不可避免地进入瓶颈期”,从原文相关段落来看,作者所讨论的问题是科学是否会到达极限的问题,而不是瓶颈期,故排除;C“人们对科学的发展过于乐观”,由原文可知,人们的态度并不是科学是否会“进入缓冲区”的原因,故排除;D“复杂的体系是无法被完全了解清楚的”只是作者给出的第二个原因所导致的结果,该项混淆了因果关系,故排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/x6R7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、IthasthestrongesteconomyinAfrica.B、ItisthemostfamouscountryinAfrica.C、IthasthemoststabledemocracyinAfric
A、Thescientistsknowitisdefinitelygettingsmaller.B、Thescientistsknowitisnearextinct.C、Thescientistsstilldonot
A、Universities’indifferencetoacademicachievement.B、Theheavyworkloadstudentshavetocopewith.C、Thecommunicationfailu
A、Diamond-producingriversaredisappearingbecauseofclimatechange.B、Diamondcouldn’tbeformedwithoutgreatheatandpress
A、Toachieveastateofdeeprelaxationispossiblethroughvariousmeans.B、Sittinginanarmchaircanreflectone’scharacter.
A、Itoffersabetterchancetohigh-levelstudents.B、Itdivideschildrenofffordifferentschools.C、Itselectsstudentsfort
A、Itcanbreakthroughtheiceeasily.B、Itcanshutandopenbotheyesquickly.C、Itcancommunicateothersharksbywinks.D、I
A、3months.B、6months.C、9months.D、12months.D对话提到,合同的期限是12个月,故答案为D。注意对时间方面的细节做笔记,并留意是否需要计算。数字题里经常出考点的是一些表示数量的特殊名词,例如quarter
A、Assessingyoursituationfrequently.B、Lookingforthingscontrollable.C、Changingyourownlifestyle.D、Takingmorechallenge
A、Itishighlyprobable.B、Itcouldbeavoided.C、Itmustbeignored.D、Itisgoodexperience.A
随机试题
直接反映了公司的营运能力的是存货的质量和__________。
A.局限B.向颈部传导C.向左液下传导D.向心尖部传导E.向胸骨下端传导二尖瓣狭窄的杂音()
逆证候性质而治的治法是
甲公司与乙银行有长期的业务往来,2000年双方订立一个借款合同,乙方借给甲方10万元,于10月10日交付,甲方1年后还清。乙方要求甲方提供担保,甲遂请丙公司为该笔贷款提供保证担保。后来由于丙公司经营不善,乙公司有些担心其所担保的债权,遂与甲商议,乙银行再借
下列工程项目目标控制的方法中,( )是动态分析方法。
下列有关印花税的处理,正确的有( )。
①科学进步的简单模式是提出理论,并从中推导出假设,然后假设接受各种技术或方法的检验。如果假设通过了检验,该理论就得到了某种程度的确证;如果假设被实验证伪,这个理论就得做出某种程度的改变,或者被一个新理论所取代。②科学中有很多理论已经被充分证实并被
虚假安全:指在高度紧张状态下大脑处于极度兴奋中,反而不容易出问题;而在接近成功状态下精神越来越放松,顿时有了安全感,然而恰恰是这一瞬间的放松,酿成大祸。下列属于虚假安全的是()。
声卡的组成很简单,它主要由一块声频处理芯片,一块音频综合芯片和一块放大器电路组成。波形声音输入计算机时,信号的取样与量化是由【 】完成的。
Thetraditionalpaintingsare(exhibited)onthesecondfloor.
最新回复
(
0
)