The limitations of science (The limitations of science)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Thursday, February 25, 2010, 00:54 (5384 days ago) @ dhw

MATT: The article was about the comparison of western science to native methods of gaining information. [...] Even if the reasoning might be a bit faulty, traditional cultures have apparently survived well by simply testing and applying immediately.
> 
> Thanks for this interesting post. I'm not sure one can say that in traditional cultures the useful information "comes down" any faster than science. Tradition needs a long time to establish itself, and useful information is usually the result of long years of experience. I read an article recently about the disastrous results of applying scientific western methods to cattle farming somewhere in East Africa. Stupidly I chucked it out, and I can't recall the details, but it was all connected with traditional nomadism and how the land (and hence cattle farming) has now been ruined by settlement and fixed pastures. One shouldn't romanticize indigenous cultures, but as you say, they survived and flourished for centuries before the European came on the scene, and the application of western norms and methods has destroyed many traditions and values which are irreplaceable. Having said that, I must own up to the fact that without western medicine, I would not have left West Africa alive!-Well the article used some kind of example that was good, but I'd have to go dig it up. -In regards to the traditional issue, it's been cropping up that some native methods of doing things were actually the correct ones in the first place. In South America, tribes would burn down a small section of forest, and then grow MANY kinds of crops in the area. By growing a variety, the tribes manage to have a better level of pest control (by avoiding monoculture) and they continuously rotate through areas to burn. Nowadays, big farms burn huge sections of rainforest, and agriculturally deplete the soil within two years. -I agree with you on western medicine, btw. And for the record the thought of returning to even a modern farm chills my spine with the thought of work, heh.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"