Unseen knowledge
Some time ago my friend told me this short story:
I was going time from school by bus. That day I felt a bit annoyed because I forgot to take my headphones and my way back home looks as if it's going to be quite long because of the traffic in the city. So I sat be the window next to a group of teens. Sitting next to them I heart their school stories, what they did today at school and so on. You might think that it is just a normal, everyday situation, but I started to think: Well, I go back go by bus every day for past 6 six or so. However, I cannot remember listening that kind of conversations were I was 9. I remember talking and hearing about some children TV shows or new toys someone received. Does it mean that I did not hear conversations about more teen issues just because I was not a teen or I wasn't interested in that topics?
My friend is also an IB student so we started to think and discuss this question. From the previous question the knowledge question arose Can we overlook different parts of knowledge because we are not interested in it? Can something like that happen in the scientific world? I would like to believe that the scientists trying to do their best and they do not let themselves to overlook possibly crucial parts while creating a new scientific law for example. And at the first glance this question might be easy to answer. But if a person, let's say a biologist, is not interested in a certain area of the biology while conducting an important experiment he or she might overlook or simply do not see other factors because of his/her lack of knowledge in this particular area of biology. This problem, of course, may be reduced or solved by working in groups. Nowadays, not many scientific discoveries are made by an individual, rather a pair or a group of scientists who specialized in various area of science are teamed up in order to gain the most accurate results.
And in every-day life? People do not have time to ask another person in every decision or choice they make. It is time-consuming and sometimes there is no other person to get advice or opinion from. Overlooking some parts of knowledge can be dangerous because it can lead to jumping into wrong conclusions. And wrong conclusions lead to wrong, maybe even unsafe choices. Simple example: Rick has a dog which as mos dogs is afraid of fireworks and every New Year's Eve is really stressful for him. So Rick decides to ease his suffering by giving him soporific medicine. And as he is not interested in dogs' health and what kind of medicine he can and cannot take, he assume that if he can take it and for him it is harmless therefore for an animal it should not give undesirable effects. Then he gives his dog this medicine and the dog becomes even more stressed and very anxious.
This example shows that sometime humans' ability to not paying attention to the details or jumping into conclusions without a fundamental education (basics) in particular field can result in wrong assumptions which might lead to dangerous actions.
See you soon,
Alicia
I was going time from school by bus. That day I felt a bit annoyed because I forgot to take my headphones and my way back home looks as if it's going to be quite long because of the traffic in the city. So I sat be the window next to a group of teens. Sitting next to them I heart their school stories, what they did today at school and so on. You might think that it is just a normal, everyday situation, but I started to think: Well, I go back go by bus every day for past 6 six or so. However, I cannot remember listening that kind of conversations were I was 9. I remember talking and hearing about some children TV shows or new toys someone received. Does it mean that I did not hear conversations about more teen issues just because I was not a teen or I wasn't interested in that topics?
My friend is also an IB student so we started to think and discuss this question. From the previous question the knowledge question arose Can we overlook different parts of knowledge because we are not interested in it? Can something like that happen in the scientific world? I would like to believe that the scientists trying to do their best and they do not let themselves to overlook possibly crucial parts while creating a new scientific law for example. And at the first glance this question might be easy to answer. But if a person, let's say a biologist, is not interested in a certain area of the biology while conducting an important experiment he or she might overlook or simply do not see other factors because of his/her lack of knowledge in this particular area of biology. This problem, of course, may be reduced or solved by working in groups. Nowadays, not many scientific discoveries are made by an individual, rather a pair or a group of scientists who specialized in various area of science are teamed up in order to gain the most accurate results.
And in every-day life? People do not have time to ask another person in every decision or choice they make. It is time-consuming and sometimes there is no other person to get advice or opinion from. Overlooking some parts of knowledge can be dangerous because it can lead to jumping into wrong conclusions. And wrong conclusions lead to wrong, maybe even unsafe choices. Simple example: Rick has a dog which as mos dogs is afraid of fireworks and every New Year's Eve is really stressful for him. So Rick decides to ease his suffering by giving him soporific medicine. And as he is not interested in dogs' health and what kind of medicine he can and cannot take, he assume that if he can take it and for him it is harmless therefore for an animal it should not give undesirable effects. Then he gives his dog this medicine and the dog becomes even more stressed and very anxious.
This example shows that sometime humans' ability to not paying attention to the details or jumping into conclusions without a fundamental education (basics) in particular field can result in wrong assumptions which might lead to dangerous actions.
See you soon,
Alicia
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