Sunday, December 04, 2005

Certainly Insert Certainty.

Certainty is: Something that is clearly established or assured; The fact, quality, or state of being certain.
At least that is what the online dictionary says it is. Certainty has special meaning for physicists. Well Uncertainty does anyway. A good scientist always knows how uncertain his results are; and his results are always uncertain. This can really mess with your philosophy of life. There is even an "uncertainty principle" which means, if it is true, (and we feel pretty certain that it is) that there is a limit to the certainty you can have on certain measurements. If your uncertainty on the measurement of the velocity of a particle is thus, then the certainty to which you can measure the position of that particle is determined.
Anyway, without getting too physics-y I am speaking of a more general certainty. A certainty which comes from the confirmation of a suspicion from some authoritative source. Like thinking you know how your mouthwash kills germs and then having someone who works for listerine tell you that in fact the alcohol in Listerine kills most of the germs.
There is a certain satisfaction that comes from knowledge gained in this way. I am apreciative of this kind of knowledge because it seems to lack the uncertainty that plauges the world of science. It gives one a sense of relief to have all of the possibilities reduced to only one. As if for a while you have no idea if reality is A, B or C, and then an Authority tells you that, of course, its A. In the science world it is often like" reality is between 1 and 2" which leaves an infinite number of possiblities. More often it becomes like" reality is between 1.000000001 and 1.000000002" - which, while still leaving an infinite number of possiblities leaves you feeling a touch more certain.
I say all this to say that I prefer the A B and C type. The type that doesn't need you to find the next digit of precision. The type where, once discoverd, gives you the reality for sure. For Certain. Even if you wanted the answer to be B, knowing for sure that it is A allows you to move on to a new question. And so I move on.

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