The language of nature

Frank Wilczek, THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
Mass, Ether, and the
Unification of Forces, Basic Books, 2008.


"In Galileo’s time, professors of philosophy and theology—the
subjects were inseparable—produced grand discourses on the
nature of reality, the structure of the universe, and the way the
world works, all based on sophisticated metaphysical arguments.
Meanwhile, Galileo measured how fast balls roll down inclined
planes. How mundane! But the learned discourses, while grand,
were vague. Galileo’s investigations were clear and precise. The
old metaphysics never progressed, while Galileo’s work bore
abundant, and at length spectacular, fruit. Galileo too cared about
the big questions, but he realized that getting genuine answers
requires patience and humility before the facts.
That lesson remains valid and relevant today. The best way to
address the big ultimate questions is likely to be through dialogue
with Nature. We must pose pointed sub-questions that give Nature
a chance to respond with meaningful answers, in particular with
answers that might surprise us.
This approach does not come naturally. In the life we evolved
for, important decisions had to be made quickly using the information
at hand. People had to spear their prey before they became
the prey. They could not pause to study the laws of motion, the
aerodynamics of spears, and how to compute a trajectory. And big
surprises were definitely not welcome. We evolved to be good at
learning and using rules of thumb, not at searching for ultimate
causes and making fine distinctions. Still less did we evolve to spin
out the long chains of calculation that connect fundamental laws
to observable consequences. Computers are much better at it!
To benefit fully from our dialogue with Nature, we must agree
to use Her language. The modes of thought that helped us to survive
and reproduce on the African savannah of 200 000 bce will
not suffice."