The Battle of the Mind

"I wish it was the entire tree that fell on Newton's head instead of just one apple."

A sentence that's supposed to incite laughter in its audience. One may call it a joke.

Because it's so easy, right? To take pride in not understanding science or math. To wish that Newton and others like him died a horrible death before contributing what they contributed so you could be spared from doing some schoolwork.

Oh, and so you wouldn't have to complain about it on inventions that were made possible because of their discoveries. Yeah, heaven forbid that should ever happen.

You know what? It's no use making the argument that science is beautiful, that science is complex, and that the complexity of science is what makes life worth living. So I invite you to consider the society at the time these geniuses put forward their groundbreaking ideas.

"Before the battle of the fist, comes the battle of the mind."

Galileo Galilei, who dared to go against the Church and become a proponent of the heliocentric theory, was put under house arrest.

Giordano Bruno was burned alive for the same reason.

Copernicus was warned against publishing his heliocentric theory on the grounds that it might spur controversy (remember that the Catholic Church was considered authority in his, Galileo's, and Bruno's time).

The presence of germs was known for nearly two centuries before the germ theory of disease was proposed. People didn't know to wash their hands before the seventeenth century.

Socrates was forced to consume poison because he was found guilty of not believing in the ancient Greek gods and of introducing new ideas to the youth of Athens.

Hypatia of Alexandria was a scholar at a time when women of her intellect were feared. "A woman of science? Sound the alarm!"

People of the past were brutal. Contempt for STEM fields today is quite subtle, but still visible. Anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, creationists, and flat-Earthers are but a few of the manifestations of the outright denial of science.

But there is something that the past and present have in common. Scientists are always fighting a battle of the mind when the people around them are in outright denial of the same math that says that 2+2=4, and the same science that says that humans need water to live.

And believe me when I say, it is not easy fighting a battle of the mind.

So I am led to wonder: Is sentencing a scientist to a horrible fate, a brutal manifestation of taking pride in cussing out the people (the scientists) because of whom we live in a digital age today?

Scientific Advancement.

Given all that we have discovered about our world till now, it might be very easy to delude oneself into thinking that there's nothing left to explore. Even though I cannot claim to be involved in scientific research at this point, I do like knowing about it, and I fall into this pitfall myself, every few years. Reading some articles (or books, as of now) is like a refreshing snap into reality.

But then I thought up an analogy for scientific advancement – navigating a maze. (Yes, Potterheads can go ahead and think of the Triwizard Tournament maze.)

The end of the maze is a new level of understanding, where all immediate questions are answered (notice the use of immediate). No one has an aerial view of this maze, but this is a maze that humankind created for itself. There is no disguised villain to tell the "Harry" inside each of us where the end is. But the trophy is a Portkey – it takes us to the next scientific quest.

It's a treacherous maze. There are deadly traps that seem like the right way, but aren't; lots of misdirections; and straight–up traps. You could fall into one of these traps and think, "Oh, I've solved it all", only to find a fellow scientist pass by, stomp his foot, and say, "That's the fifth time I've passed through here!", successfully removing you from your high horse (that you climbed accidentally, you promise!).

People spend their lifetimes in this maze, at different paces, falling for different tricks. Many die before reaching a breakthrough, which can be thought of as a sign in the maze that you're going in the right direction (a breakthrough, that is).

There are people who are ahead of everyone else, people who prevent others from going ahead, and people who change course in the middle of the maze. And many die at dead ends (no pun intended).

But given that this maze was made by humans for humans, some even find it a pleasure navigating it.

Happy journey!