The Day the Universe Changed
When one’s view of the universe changes, the universe itself effectively changes.
By
January 9, 2010 at 1:29 PM
Font size:
|
The 1985 BBC series The Day the Universe Changed by John Burke outlined the many ways in which scientific and technological innovations transformed the Western world. Until the mass production of books, knowledge was limited to what you personally experienced in the few miles you could travel. In the new world of books, and later newspapers and magazines, for the first time people could share in the experience and knowledge of others. In the intervening 570 years, we have learned of oceans and continents, our solar system and galaxy, and the ever expanding and never ending universe. Little of what we know comes from our own direct and personal knowledge. Today, the world of print, however, is being buffeted by Internet storms and the global economic crisis is on the verge of scrambling the international economic order. But over the next few decades these unsettling transformations may seem like minor blips as physicists and cosmic theorists unlock the hidden mysteries of our universe.
Their ideas seem as crazy as the ramblings of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei in the 16th and 17th century. Should these cosmic theories pan out over the next several decades, however, we will enter a brave new world in which cosmic distances are navigated through the tiniest of wormholes. In such an eventuality, we may turn out to be modern day Neanderthals, our glittering world a throwback -- as pathetically backward and limited as the five square miles that defined knowledge and reality for people of the 15th century seems to us. As we turn the page to a new decade, we may stand on the cusp of a revolution as epical as the one Burns argued in his BBC series was wrought nearly six centuries earlier by the printing press, "When one's view of the universe changes, the universe itself effectively changes." |
Email
Print
Post your comment