by Stephen Wolfram
The importance of this article is its accurate description
of the great promise of applying the natural sciences and mathematics to human
behavior, AND their limitations. Wolfram's
comment toward the end on taking a certain comfort that there will most likely
never be an ultimate, totally predictive knowledge of human behavior and the
processes of the universe should not cause discouragement. Nor should the
unlikely attainment of such a perfect knowledge cause us to abandon the
focusing of the natural sciences on Humankind. Acceptance of the unlikely
emergence of a complete, deterministic natural science of man is an acceptance
of the reality of the complexity of the universe and in turn the complexities
of the affairs of Humankind. I am comforted by the provisional scientific
knowledge we continue to build, not by a desire or need for an absolute
knowledge. The former seems a better fit for the provisional, evolving universe
we are in.
