The End of Discovery

Limits to Scientific Discovery

Science has advanced rapidly throughout recent history, but don’t assume this progression will continue – ¬it can’t. Science won’t reach its limits anytime soon, but it will stop making fundamental discoveries. This won’t be because humanity knows everything; rather, the human brain evolved for certain functions, and human intelligence has its limits. For example, confirming string theory would require a “particle accelerator the size of a galaxy.” Certain profound questions have long resisted resolution, perhaps because they have no answers.

What Is the Relationship Between the Brain and the Mind?

Scientists cannot explain the relationship between brain activity and people’s “mental experience.” This leads to an even larger question: Why should you “have mental experiences at all?” You know you’re conscious, and you assume other people are, since they act like you, but you can’t know that directly. The “problem of consciousness” has been around for thousands of years, sitting at the intersection of two different ways of discussing things. One “language” talks about what you feel and think; the other addresses scientific and mathematical...