Scientists in Wonderland

Over last few weeks I have interacted a lot with young science students in various communities of Orkut. These have been Physics, Biology or Maths students. The Orkut Physics community is so active, it is difficult to keep pace with it. As an observer of the community from outside I have some interesting observations about the community of budding physicists of India (most of the members were Indians).

For many of the physicists, science is very dear to heart. Much too dear for comfort. These obviously 'in-love-with-science' guys seek a reflection of their fantasies in physical laws. Most of these are drawn to science after being impressed with science fiction stories. As religion is more and more relegated to realm of mythology, it is just too incapable of supporting the expectations of scientifically exposed youngsters. For the fantasy of time-travel, super-weapons, non-earthly life-forms, teleportation, communication with past, etc to come true, they must be sanctioned by science. Religion/Gods would no longer do.

But science can be very stubborn. Consequently, these people dream of scientific sanction of their fantasies. A very effective way to do this is to claim that current scientific knowledge has no way of indubitably refuting such extraordinary things. Then they go further and claim that all of this is actually possible in some forseeble technology, when we learn to harness the 'wormholes' which are 'obviously' present everywhere. Why, General Relativity obviously allows this ! Or in future we will be able to create mini black holes to have indefinite energy sources. Of course Einstein himself predicted this ... or errr .. maybe Hawking ... details doesn't matter ... it is all the same !

If not General Relativity, we have the Quantum Theory which 'proves' existence of parallel universes, where all such extraordinary devices are the norm. And it is just a matter of time when we know how to transcend the universe barrier and learn all these new techniques. Actually even better, in some parallel universe every one has his own 'copy' which uses these devices as a matter of daily routine.

Aren't such extra ordinary things a modern incarnation of our age old myths about souls, demons, Gods, spirits, etc ? We have merely become smarter in deluding ourselves. Now we don't explicitly mention religion, but we fool ourselves nevertheless. Make no mistake, all these enlightened physicists will promptly dispatch any religious bigot who wanders their sacred precincts. They will not tolerate any talk about Avatar, Allah, Trinity and likewise. Instead they have new Almighties - Quantum Theory & General Relativity. It is actually not a monotheistic religion. To be sure there are other lesser Gods (who derive their power from these two bigger Gods) - anti-matter, dark energy, negative gravitation, infinite energy, singularity, parallel universes, black holes, event horizon, aliens, etc etc. All these may or may not be objects of scientific investigation, but they sure are worthy of worship. This is an entire ecology of deities.

Sometimes these high priests quarrel about details of this and that, but ultimately most of them reach a consensus. How couldn't they ? They are modern citizens of a liberal mature democracy ... and a 'secular' one too, which doesn't favor any particular religion. This is a high ferment of social ideals and scientific laws.

The only hitch is the pesky experiments .. they just refuse to budge.

How undemocratic ! How tyrannical !! How barbaric !!!