Paradigms Are Meant To Be Shifted

Trust the process

Have you heard of Ancient Apocalypse?

A friend told me about it earlier tonight, and it sounds pretty cool. The host presents a number of a theories about the possibility of prehistoric advanced civilizations which got lost to the sands of time. Who doesn’t love to wonder about missing pieces of human history?

There was one weird moment, though.

The friend in question seemed to hold a real vitriol for actual archaeologists, saying stuff like “They’ve become so wrapped up in their own theories that they can’t stand to be proven wrong.” It’s pretty clear that the producers of Ancient Apocalypse decided to paint Big Archaeology as the shows antagonist.

When did it become malicious to be wrong?

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As any Joe Rogan fan will be quick to remind you, science is just a collection of theories.¹ We prove ourselves wrong all the time, so we need to be able to update our framework in response to new facts.

Take Ignaz Semmelweis, one of the first physicians to identify the life-saving health benefits of sterilization in hospitals. It’s so easy to laugh at the ridicule of his era’s prevailing knowledge. His peers simply refused to believe that actions like washing hands after touching corpses could help reduce mortality rates, which sounds absurd.

In this case, the medical establishment was wrong.

Truthfully, our various institutions are wrong all the time!

THAT’S OKAY.

In an ideal world, scientific experts should absolutely be questioned, regardless of whether society likes or dislikes their theories. Remember, the burden of proof is on them. Sure, all of us purveyors of the old paradigm may end up looking foolish if they’re right, but that’s just our role in the larger process.

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Where I get very frustrated is with the conspiracies and accusations of conflicts of interest.

A theory is invalid because it is unsupported by data, not because the theory’s proponents “will lose money when everyone realizes they’re wrong”.

I’ll concede that researchers are motivated to protect the theories they’ve spent years working on. But that vested interest does not make them inherently incorrect.

If anything, scientists putting their names and pride on the line is what we need. Competition between dueling minds undoubtedly leads to high-quality, finely-tuned work.

Wee stand on the shoulders of giants. Our lives are entertaining, convenient, and long because of thousands of years of trial and error as humans relentlessly pursued truth.

So let’s fucking stop painting scientists as evil just because they disagree with us.

1. For the record, there’s nothing wrong with listening to Rogan’s podcast. I’ve just noticed that he’s bred a certain “just asking questions” vibe among his fans. People can believe what they want, but it’s hard to have a productive conversation when someone who simply doesn’t believe in the same prevailing knowledge that you do.