Truth Depends on Knowledge

When is truth truly known

I have written blogs that say Mars soil is biologically compatible and also a blog that says it is toxic to humans. Which is it? Prior to the discovery of perchlorate it looked good. After, not so good. Now we need to know how much perchlorate and its distribution.

It all depends on what assumptions we make about truth based on the state of our knowledge. If I was being conservative and sceptical which is the way of modern science, I would have written all those blogs simply as 'It is too early to tell' instead of making a call based on the best available information.

As a blogger, I take licence to speculate based on what we know at a particular time and this may lead to conclusions that disagree with each other as new information comes is as is the case with Mars data on soils. In this sense, all my blogs about science are drafts only subject to change with newer and better data and understanding.

More information may tell us in the future that perchlorate was at low levels and in only a few places and so the soils may turn out to be more compatible than my second blog suggests.

These considerations give insight into how pure knowledge is arrived at. It is a process of starts and stops and new directions and fresh insights and always our conceptions have to take account of new information and be open to that. Absolute truth depends on complete knowledge but how do we know when knowledge is complete? When predictions made always produce the same result.

Speculation helps us to fine tune the types of questions we need answers for and so it is more about the art of science than the practice of science which is to always assume the null hypothesis of no difference and see if it can be rejected with unbiased research. What I have shown is that it is important when formulating the absolute truth, to not rush to final judgement and also to be aware that the absolute truth if knowable at all, depends upon how much information or data we have. Formulating policy on the best available information is clearly a risky business.

What lies beyond our universe if anything may never be knowable for certain or the names of skeletons from ancient graves or anything covered by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle etc..

It also helps us to put research into a social context because ultimately, it has to be seen to have meaning and purpose for humanity to support more research.

Jormawankenobe

© 2008 J. Jyrkkanen