I\u2019m sitting in my kitchen in the early morning hours with my laptop and a cuppa coffee to keep me company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wife and kids asleep. House quiet, except the low drone of the fridge. I look outside the window and see the 50 foot tall pine trees slowly swaying in the breeze. Calm. Peace. A chance to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humankind has been putzing around the planet for about 2 million years or so\u2026domesticating and taming our environment to make this place more survivable and habitable. During that time, we\u2019ve come to gain some experience at how to go about things while we\u2019re here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For maybe 5,000 years we started writing some of that stuff down so that we can transmit the experience to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2,000+ years since people worked out a few principles that hinted at the mechanics of how the world is structured and can be quantified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
300 years since people started being rigorous and systematic about how to test ideas and try to find the most reproducible ones. Reproducibility = Predictability<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By my reckoning, we\u2019ve only spent about 0.015% of our time on the planet living scientifically. What have we gained in the process? Well, antibiotics\u2026immunizations\u2026synthetic fertilizers increasing our average lifespans to more than double what they once were in the past 100 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s not just about quantity of life that\u2019s increased. It\u2019s our ability to step outside our door and have some predictability as to how our days might go. The weather. The traffic patterns. Food availability. Not getting eaten by faster, nastier things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scientific method has given us our best chance of living predictable lives. To some, that sounds horribly limiting and boring. Well\u2026I\u2019ll take boring but predictable over exciting but being at the capricious mercy of \u201cfate\u201d any day of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the difference between this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n