Physics and aerospace
How Young Is Human Science?
Not primitive. Prenatal — developed enough to observe the universe, not yet developed enough to recognise all the questions it is being asked.
UnknownWhat we actually know
Humanity has understood electricity for roughly two centuries, evolution for about one hundred and seventy years, relativity and quantum mechanics for a little over a century, the structure of DNA for barely seventy. Against the age of the Earth this is not a short chapter. It is the first sentence.
Where the extrapolation begins
Any civilisation capable of crossing interstellar distance and building an object that holds its dimensions to eleven decimal places has had longer, or thought faster, or both. Comparing our physics with the engineering embodied in the Servator sphere is not comparing two theories. It is comparing a theory with an artefact.
What the novel invents
The novel's most disturbing open question is not whether we are alone. It is whether we are old enough to be spoken to. The object has been yielding information for ninety-three years. The limiting factor has never been the object.
Questions to think about
- — What would it take to accept that our science is early rather than incomplete?
- — If something has been trying to teach us for ninety-three years, what does that say about the teacher's expectations?
Where to read next
- — History of science timelines — electricity, evolution, relativity, genetics
- — Discussions of technological maturity and civilisational timescales in SETI literature
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