Science in Diapers: 15 Centuries of Stagnation Debate

Science advances, but human impatience does not forgive

There is an anxiety that permeates certain post-meal debates and has recently settled into digital conversation: the sensation that science advances in fits and starts and that humans, despite the mobile phone in their pocket, still know almost nothing. The trigger for this reflection, according to one participant, is an anniversary arriving these days: the century since the discovery of galaxies. A milestone that, rather than being celebrated, serves to remind us of all that remains unknown.

That participant's premise is blunt: a little over 100 years ago, there were no airplanes, electricity, or running water in homes. Today, in the full 21st century, the depths of the sea, the contents of the Earth's layers, and how space functions remain unknown. There are only "four unproven bad theories," according to their formulation. Meanwhile, millions of people in the first world deny the existence of bicho.

The burden of 15 centuries of regression

The central thesis of this discontent points to a historical culprit: the destruction of Greco-Roman civilization by religious sects from the East. The argument holds that between the end of the classical world and 1750, scientific, cultural, and social advances existing in Antiquity were not recovered. If that is not a delay for the planet, let someone explain what is.

The rebuttal does not wait. Some argue that the debacle was caused by the weakness and instability of central Roman power, and that Christians only came to harvest what was sown. Furthermore, Christianity would have given the empire several more years of oxygen by unifying it under a new banner before falling to the Germans. The real blame, in this reading, lies with the Huns, who weakened the structure and allowed the Germans to enter with swords.

Another current of analysis goes further back, pointing out that humanity itself is in diapers. Ten thousand years is nothing, especially when most of them we spent harvesting, herding, migrating, dying of diseases, and killing each other in horrible ways, while elites engaged in philosophical-religious mental toca, writing poetry, hosting orgies, and enslaving everyone below them.

The medieval pogre that the official narrative hides

Against the image of a dark millennium, some analyses argue that there was brutal pogre during the Middle Ages and that advancement never stopped. These are ideas instilled by the pogre of the time and repeated by today's pogre to blame the Church for something that did not occur. The naval development of 1725 cannot be compared to that of the 1st century Roman Empire, and construction experienced a leap with the appearance of the Gothic style, which closed the Romanesque.

The nuance is important: it is conceded that from the 4th to the 11th century there may have been stagnation, especially in Western Europe. But from there to speaking of fifteen centuries of nothing is a long stretch. Natural evolution, including human evolution, is a complex and non-linear process: one path is tried, it does not work, another is tried, and sometimes millions of years must pass for the next attempt.

Quantum physics and the electron no one has seen

The debate delves into more technical terrain. Some recall that, to this day, there is no model of the electron, neutron, or any other particle. Heisenberg already said it: all we can do is know the properties of objects we call electrons, but that tells us nothing about what an electron IS. He was not taken seriously because he was Nancy, but time has proven him right.

The conclusion drawn is uncomfortable: science is not even 10% of what it claims to be. And most prefer to cling to comfortable ideas and comforting stories rather than seek the truth. With these attitudes, as a species, we remain in diapers.

The economic limit and life that ends before advancement

There is a factor often overlooked: human life has become too short for what science needs today. The parents of potential scientific advances die without seeing them confirmed, something that did not occur during the 19th century and the first two-thirds of the 20th. Now there are economic, industrial, financial, and organizational limits that make it take a long time to develop new instruments and high-cost experiments.

In the field of biology, the complexity is enormous, and machines will have to help, which they already do, but will do more in the future. The hovering question is whether science is reaching its limits and entering frank decadence, or if we are simply in the nursery of knowledge. The technology emanating from existing science is another matter.

The anguish of the 26th century

The final reflection is inevitable: what will the world be like in the 26th century? The anguish does not come from what is known, but from what will not be seen. There could be infinite, clean, and renewable energy sources, colonies on several planets, secrets of intergalactic travel, and all diseases curable. All that could be and that we will not see.

The consolation, if there is any, is that humanity has been in this for a short time. But impatience is human, and the sensation of wasting time is too. While some break their necks deciphering the enigmas of the physics of the universe, others deny the existence of bicho. And so, between some and others, science continues to advance in fits and starts.