March 1st, 2017

Why are we here?

Why do we do Science?

Why do we I do Science?

Abraham Harold Maslow

April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970

American psychologist who created Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

  • A theory of psychological health
  • based on fulfilling innate human needs in priority
  • starting with basic physical needs
  • culminating in self-actualization

Maslow pyramid

Levels of the pyramid

  • Physiological needs: air, food, water, sleep
  • Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability
  • Love and Belonging: family and friends
  • Esteem: comfortable about success, be recognized
  • Cognitive: intellectual stimulation, exploration
  • Aesthetic: harmony, order and beauty
  • Self-realization: morality, creativity, problem solving, acceptance, spontaneity
  • Trascendence: connection to “oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos”

Self-realization

  • Occurs when individuals reach a state of harmony and understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential
  • Once a person has reached the self-actualization state they focus on themselves and try to build their own image. They may look at this in terms of feelings such as self-confidence or by accomplishing a set goal

Kendini gerçekleştirme gereksinimi (erdem, yaratıcılık, doğallık, problem çözme, önyargısız olma, gerçeklerin kabulü)

Usage of time

Each day has 24 hours

2017-02-19 13:49Z Sleep W ake up Travel W ork W ork Lunch Work T ravel Home Diner Y our own life

My opinion

A job just for “safety” is boring
😒☹️😩😵

I want to do something meaningful

Meaning of Life

at least, the meaning of meaningful

Humans like to ask questions

  • Childs are always asking Why?
    • and Why?
    • and Why?
    • and Why?
    • and Why?
  • Until when?

  • What is the ultimate answer?

The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

According to The Book

42 what?

  • Hyper-intelligent beings create a computer to find the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything
  • This enormous supercomputer (of the size of a city) calculated during 7.5 million years
  • Unfortunately, no one knows what the question is
  • To calculate the Ultimate Question, a special computer the size of a planet was built from organic components and named Earth
  • After ten million years of calculation, the Earth is destroyed five minutes before the computation is complete

I will not take that risk

So, let’s say …

24

24 what?

24°

24 degrees of what?

latitude?

temperature?

  • Celsius?
  • Farenheit?
  • Kelvin?

Big difference. 24°F=-4.44°C

do we have meaning now?

24°C

Is this good or bad?

Depends

  • if it is a human body, it is bad. Probably is dead

  • It its is the weather, then it is good

Ok, Now we have 100 temperature values

24.01, 24.66, 22.93, 19.92, 15.72, 12.4, 9.918, 8.99, 9.288, 11.96, 16.01, 20.86, 23.95, 24.65, 22.87, 19.81, 15.89, 12.12, 9.86, 8.755, 8.845, 11.34, 15.47, 20.5, 23.99, 24.85, 23.04, 20.23, 16.3, 12.44, 9.89, 8.703, 9.105, 11.36, 15.83, 20.59, 23.81, 24.56, 23.07, 19.9, 15.86, 12.14, 9.805, 8.89, 9.193, 11.75, 15.95, 20.62, 23.95, 24.81, 22.96, 19.51, 15.81, 12.31, 9.678, 8.665, 9.178, 11.48, 15.62, 20.51, 24, 24.81, 23.03, 19.68, 15.99, 12.3, 10.11, 9.01, 9.348, 11.76, 15.91, 20.54, 24.25, 24.7, 23.37, 19.83, 15.27, 11.79, 9.6, 8.693, 9.04, 11.64, 15.93, 20.81, 23.97, 24.52, 22.79, 19.84, 15.96, 12.38, 9.97, 8.818, 9.355, 11.62, 16.09, 20.68, 23.79, 24.57, 23.13, 19.73 and 15.61

Is there any meaning? Any pattern?

There are patterns

Essence v/s accident

Clustering

We have a better story here

hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm, mild, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, mild, warm, hot, hot, hot, warm and mild

Time perspective

Twelve month period

Why?

How can we explain this?

  • God’s will
  • Magic
  • Just good luck
  • Movement of the planet
  • Witchery

The meaning is on the explanation

In a broad sense an explanation is a story

At some level any story is valid

Human mind apparently is a storyteller

To be meaningful you have to tell a story

The meaning of life

Your life is meaningful…

… if at the end of the day you can tell yourself a story that makes you feel good, connected, transcendent

Life is short. Live it intentionally

A scientific explanation should be

  • Coherent with the evidence
  • Logic
  • Testable
  • Predictive

Predictive v/s Descriptive models

Main Question Nature Method Result Format
How? Descriptive Data Analysis Non-testable Comment
Why? Explanatory Logic Testable Prediction
  • “This is so, and that’s it”
  • “This should be so, because …”

Historical examples

Biology

  • Linnaeus describes diversity through Taxonomy
  • Darwin explains diversity through Evolution and Natural Selection

Physics

  • Tycho Brahe described the movements of planets
  • Kepler made a model that explained it
    • Geometrical and beautiful model
  • Newton made a theory that explained Kepler’s laws from “first principles”

Levels of Knowledge

We can distinguish these levels on this story

  • Data
  • Information
  • Knowledge
  • Wisdom

Data v/s Information

Our instruments produce Data. A lot

Information is the abstraction of data that allows us to make decision

Knowledge allows us to explain why things are as we see

Wisdom allows us to predict the future

My proposal

I sustain that Scientific Impact comes from explanations in the form of models

Experiments are meaningful only if:

  • They allow us to discover a pattern and propose a model
  • They allow us to validate a prediction of a model
  • They allow us to discard a false model

You have already models

Not all models are mathematical models

There are different levels of abstraction

Abstraction

But Impact is about Citations…

Many institutions consider the number of citation as equivalent to scientific impact

Citations are an index of impact, as temperature is an index of health

If you have a dead body at 24°C, will you heat it to bring it back to life?

My proposal

Learn Tools for Thinking

  • Logic: What is a correct argument
  • Fallacies: How we fool ourselves
  • Probabilities: because biology is not logic
  • Critical reading: learning from the mistakes of others
  • Learn by practice

The limit of my language is the limit of my world