Lee Smolin on science and democracy
About 3 years ago while in London, someone named Howard Burton came to me and said, "I represent a group of people, who want to establish an institute of theoretical physics. We have about 120 million dollars, and we want to succeed. We want to be at the forefront and want to do it differently. We want to get rid of this where the young have all the ideas, but the old ones have the power and decide where the science goes. I need 25 seconds to decide that this is a good idea.
Three years later we have the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. The most exciting job I have ever had. This is the first time I am afraid to leave my job considering that it might happen during the 1 week I was here. (Laughter) However, in this short time, I would like to invite you to visit some of the things we are talking about and thinking about. We often think about what makes science work? First of all, everyone who knows the science and has been around it, all the science method lessons in school are wrong. There is no such thing as a method. In the end, we will be able to negotiate together as a community, from incomplete evidence, to the conclusions we all agree on. This is something that the democratic community should do.
How does it work? I believe this works because scientists are bound by ethics. Here are some basic ethics. I will not read everything because I am not a teacher, I am being an entertainer. (Laughter)
One principle is that everyone in the community has to fight and argue as hard as they can on what they believe. But we can all control ourselves because we understand that the person who will determine whether I or someone else is right, is our community in the next generation, in the next 30 and 50 years. So this is a mixture of respect for our traditions and communities, and the rebellion needed by communities everywhere, so that science can succeed. I believe as part of the process and the negotiating community from evidence to conclusion, we learn about democracy. Not only is there a relationship between the ethics of science and ethics to the people in democracy, but there is also a historical connection between how people think about space, time, and cosmology with how people think about their society.
I want to tell you about the three stages of evolution. The first science of cosmology, not at all like science, is the hierarchical science of Aristotle. The earth is at its center, then there is this crystal ball, the sun, the moon, the planet, and finally the celestial bodies where the star is. All in this universe has its place. Aristotle's laws of motion are all in place, which, of course, are in accordance with the rules of society in the time of Aristotle, and moreover, medieval society through which the church acknowledges and blesses them. The idea that everything has been determined. Where it is, is determined by this last ball, the sphere ball, where out there is perfect calm, where God is, who is the last judge of all.
So that's the cosmology of Aristotle and a bit more, medieval society. Then in the seventeenth century there was a revolution in seeing space, time, motion, and so forth, from Newton. At the same time there is a revolution in the social thinking of John Locke and his colleagues. Both are highly related. Actually, Newton and Locke are friends. Their way of thinking about space, time, and motion on the one hand and society on the other, are closely connected.
Let me show you. In Newton's universe, there is no center - thank you. There are particles that move against the frame of space and time are absolute and fixed. The location of an object in space can be explained in absolute terms, since it does not explain where the other objects are, but explains this absolute frame of space, which for Newton is God.
Similarly, in Locke society there are individuals who have certain rights, in the formal sense prescribed for an abstract notion of absolute rights and justice and so on which are independent of what happens in society. Or who the person is in history and so on. There is also an All-Knowing observer who knows everything, that is God. which according to understanding exists outside of the universe, because he does not play a role in any event but in a sense, it is everywhere, for space is only God's way of knowing where everything is, according to Newton.