There is no limit to Science, there is certainly no limit on logic or reason

In a previous post a commenter said the following :

• Anonymous said...  
• Reason is important of course, especially in dealing with day to day life, but its not everything and it has its limitations. 
• Even modern science has no answer to some things. 
• Eg origin of the universe. Yes there's the big bang theory, but its just a theory and there's many variations to it and so many things that are not resolved. 
• Another is the problem of consciousness - the so called hard problem of consciousness is still not resolved. 
• Quantum physics have been around over 100 years, yet scientists have not fully understood it yet. 
• The simple double slit experiment that was done more than 100 years ago is still not fully understood. 
• Beware of the hubris of reason.

Friday, June 29, 2018 7:35:00 PM 

My comments : This is a very erroneous view.  There CANNOT be limits to Science. It is impossible. There are only human time limits and limits on human effort to "uncover" the Science. Science means knowledge (from the Latin scientia).  But Science (knowledge) of anything and everything is totally and completely unlimited.

Lets take that same comment and apply it to say 2000 years ago when Plato was alive. Plato is considered the founder of western philosophy and scientific thinking. His teacher was Socrates and his famous student was Aristotle. 

Despite being declared the founder of Western philosophy and scientific thinking, during Plato's time there was no idea of the big bang, the universe as we understand it today, quantum theory, telescopes, microscopes or anything. It was basic and rudimentary attempts at understanding the world.  

Talk about science not being able to answer everything. During Plato's time there was no science - as we know it today. Even the scientific method had not evolved.

But our Science has advanced plenty since Plato. The greatest majority of human scientific knowledge has expanded only in the past 100 years or so (say from Jan 1st 1900 - can discuss).

Today any PhD researcher in science in any university in the world will know more Science and the Scientific Method than Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Khwarizmi, Omar Khayyam, Isaac Newton, Al Jeber and everyone put together. 

The Science behind the Big Bang Theory (or its origins) developed only around the 1920s.  We did not have the Science to figure out the theory until then.  So lets give it another hundred years. Imagine how much human Science (aka knowledge) would have advanced in another 100 years?  I am positive the human beings would know more Science.

You need mathematical power. You need computing power.  

The first supercomputer (debateable) built by Seymour Cray (may Allah bless his memory) in 1964 had specs like this :    "CPU capable of whopping 3 megaFLOPS. To put this in context, the Apple A8 chip in the iPhone 6 turns out 115 gigaFLOPS. It had approximately 0.94MB of main memory."

0.94 megabytes of memory??  That was a supercomputer just 54 years ago.

Here is some news about the latest supercomputer  :

"The IBM Summit system reached a speed of 122.3 petaflops on the High-Performance Linpack benchmark test—the software used to evaluate and rank supercomputers on the TOP500 list. At its theoretical peak, Summit is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second—about eight times more performance than its predecessor Titan."

I dont fully understand what this means. But I do know that this IBM supercomputer is damned freaking fast.  

With crunching power like this, human science can go beyond the skies, deep into our DNA and more.  

Supercomputers enabled the nuclear powers (US, France, UK, Chine, even India) to STOP testing atomic bombs.  Their supercomputers were able to calculate the blast effects of their atomic weapons.  No need anymore to actually explode an atomic bomb. Not the best  example but just an idea of how much the human beings did not know before - but they do know now.

The invention of the simple microscope by Anton Leeuwenhoek in the late 1600s helped human Science understand 'small things'.  Leeuwenhoek was also the first human to observe microbes / bacteria.

But it was another 200 years before Louis Pasteur (1860) linked bacteria to disease.

Science is not limited. Science is unlimited.

What is limited (or challenged or has obstacles put in front of it, for example by religion) are human efforts or the amount of time spent by humans to pursue Science. That is our limitation.  

Science is absolutely unlimited.  We have to simply "uncover" (some prefer "discover") Science aka KNOWLEDGE.

Then human beings invented the electron microscope. Normal lens microscopes can magnify up to 2000 times. Electron microscopes can magnify small things up to 10 MILLION TIMES and counting.

Then we have the Hubble Telescope. Now we have AI - artificial intelligence. Marry AI to the fastest supercomputer and only Allah knows where our Science (aka KNOWLEDGE) will go. 

So let me repeat SCIENCE has absolutely NO LIMITS.  

If there is an edge (al aqsa)  to outer space, therefore it means that that edge (al aqsa) of outer space must exist. If it exists we can reach it. We just have to get there. We need to get the technology. That is all. We need the Science.  We may not have it today.  But lets keep trying. We will get it tomorrow.

We just invented the wheel circa 3500 BC in Mesopotamia.

The exhaust from the Wright Brothers "Flyer" possibly still has traces in Kitty Hawk.

We just invented the modern electron microscope circa 1930 - 1960. 

We do not know where our Science will take us 100 years from now. 200 years from now. 500 years from now.

But here is A STATEMENT THAT IS EXTREMELY SCIENTIFIC. I THINK THIS STATEMENT IS BIGGER THAN EINSTEIN, NEWTON, PLATO, KHWARIZMI, AL JEBER ALL PUT TOGETHER.

I believe THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT EVER.

"SCIENCE CANNOT PROVE A NEGATIVE".

This means Science cannot prove something that does not exist. 

From Mesopotamia 3500 BC, from Plato 350 BC, from Einstein 1960s, today 2018, or tomorrow 2100AD, 2200AD, 3500AD, 5000AD or going into the far future 50,000 AD it does not matter. Science simply cannot prove something that does not exist.  Not ever.

What are the things that do not exist?

1. Santa Claus.

2. My favorite imaginary invisible friend 

3. My favorite, imaginary, pet flying unicorn

4. Spirituality (has anyone seen a spirit yet?)

5. the human "soul" ?

Science cannot prove the existence of these non existent things. 

These things are the domain of hocus pocus, the shamans, the witch doctors, the pagans, the ignorant (al jahiloon).  

It is also the highest heights of ignorance to say that Science is limited just because Science CANNOT  prove the existence of your favorite, imaginary, invisible friend.

To conclude here is the Quran, Surah 25:63

وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا

wa izaa ha tha bahumu al jaahiloona qaa-lu  salaam  

which means "and when the ignorant address them they say 'SALAM' (Peace)" 

So I will leave it at that. Salam. Peace.