Dark Energy and the Ethics of Curiosity

1. Dark Energy and the Ethics of Curiosity Roger F Malina Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence (OAMP) Leonardo/ISAST: International Society for the Arts-Sciences-Technology

2. A couple of confessions: I am a positivist Critical realist, constructivist World exists, is knowable Reliance on the senses and their extensions Scientific method I am an atheist Emergence in complex systems

4. Concordance Model of Cosmology:Big Bang..Re-ionisation..Large scale structure..stars and galaxies..planets..life

6. The Dark Universe:A billion pound Scientific Controversy Astronomers now believe only 3% of the content of the universe is made of the same stuff as us. And maybe Einstein’s Theory of Gravity needs to be modified, is wrong on large scales And, Or ?

7. Dark Matter 1/3 Dark Matter, whose gravity holds together the structures we see

8. 2/3 is Dark Energy that drives the acceleration of the expansion of the universe

9. A satellite to study dark energy and dark matter Massive collection of data A international scientific collaboration Total End to End cost: 1 billion pounds Womb to Tomb schedule: 1998- 2018 ? 20 years… Ten different research labs and universities 80 person core collaboration already..hundreds Societal Limits to curiosity

10. Three linked approaches within the scientific method that stop curiosity Explanation through New Physical « Laws »: Compact Descriptions of the World Experiments on the world Modified Gravity, Quintessence Simulations: Virtual Worlds that mimic our World Retrodiction vs Prediction Pattern Recognition: « Petabyte » era, Massive Cataloguing, Virtual Observatories Doing experiments on data about the world Extrapolation vs Explanation…The End of Theory…

11. When does one stop looking ? What is the limit of curiosity ? Scientist: When one has a tested explanation that makes sense Artist: When one has generated an experience that creates meaning/changes perception/realised self expression What kinds of explanations make sense ? Scientist: When we are dealing with epistemologies/ontologies that are commensurate with our current science Artist: When it is relevant to the human condition and experience. Individual and shared ..intensity Is there an ethics of curiosity ? Science and the Ethics of Curiosity, Sundar Sarukkai, 2009 Most Scientists would say: No Most Artists would say: Yes

12. Curiosity as a driver of technology:“Most” of the content of the Universe is “unobservable” Not observable with unaided human senses Not observable with existing technologies: Augmented senses Extended Senses New senses Not observable because of measurement method Theoretically unobservable Conceptually Unobservable

13. Sensory paradox: Most of our information about the universe now comes in ways, contexts where we have no basis for intuition, language, metaphorical frameworks. These devices « hallucinate » in ways with which we have no experience. How to do « ground truth » experiments ? How to decide what to be curious about ?

14. New Senses:Gravitational Wave ObservatoriesLIGO in USA VIRGO in Italy

15. New senses: The Antares Neutrino Observatory under the Mediterranean

16. What path to take through the universe ?cf Cheese Diagram Guardans, Czegledy SLOW........................................................................................................ FAST SMALL               OUR SIZE                           LARGE

17. Scientific Curiosity Scientific curiosity is ‘pure’, driven by a child like desire to understand ourselves and the world around us Pure Science vs Applied Science Note: Fine Art vs Applied Art Curiosity does not accept authority, but relies on confrontation of hypotheses/meanings with experiments/experience. No function of ‘science critic’ cf ‘art critic”

18. Ethos of Scientific Curiositycf Bunge 2006, Morton Intellectual Honesty Integrity Epistemic Communism Organized skepticism Dis-interestedness Impersonality Universality

19. Towards an Ethics of Curiositycf Sundar Sarukkai: Science and the Ethics of Curiosity 2009 Curiosity is embodied Curiosity is enacted Curiosity is cultural Curiosity is social Curiosity is collective The claimed distinction between “pure” and “applied” science is not sustainable In some cultures, eg some Indian traditions, doubt rather than curiosity is a dominant driver ( cf Descartes) “Beware of binary oppositions” !

20. Curiosity is embodied:Varela: All knowledge is conditioned by the structure of the knowerStelarc Char Davies

21. Curiosity is enactiveeg Marcel.li Antunez RocaRichard Feynman: What I cannot create, I cannot understand

22. Curiosity is SocialMarco Peljham and Makrolab

23. Curiosity is CulturalSaint Augustine: It was curiosity led me along the false trails before submitting tochristian baptismsFrancis Bacon: It is Charity that must motivate the knower, not curiosityDonna CoxRuth WestWeather Data Bases                                   Protein Sequence Data

24. Curiosity is collective:Frank Malina/WAC corporal team: first man man object in space 1947 Alan Lightman: Individual scientists are not emotionally detached from their work, it is through their collective activity that objectivity emerges

25. Modern Science doesn’t make common sense New scientific knowledge comes through the use of instruments that have contact with a world that is not our world Our languages, metaphors, descriptions are disconnected from these worlds We are trained on the wrong data set for survival Einstein:” The universe of ideas is just as independent of the nature of our experience as clothes are of the form of the human body” Science has become a cargo cult

26. Science as a Terrain for Art Forming intuition on mediated sensory data Designing/Interacting with simulated systems Making sense/meaning of dense data, petabyte era Making Science Intimate, Peoples Science, Micro Science New Ontologies, New Intuitions,New Sensuality

27. Curiosity:D’ou venons nous ?Que Sommes Nous ?Ou Allons Nous ?Ethics of Curiosity: “the nature of the task of the “ought’ is the other-directedness of the “is”