> Infinity is the cause of the crisis in Physics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity
WHAT IS A PARADIGM SHIFT?
A paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his famous
1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe the
process and result of a change in basic assumptions within the ruling
theory of science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift
http://tinyurl.com/9xzo9
...Chronologically, Kuhn distinguishes three phases;
1. The first phase, which is undergone only once, is the pre-
scientific phase, in which there is no consensus on any theory. This
phase is characterized by several incompatible and incomplete
theories.
2. If this pre-scientific community eventually gravitates to one of
these frames of thought, leading to wide-spread concensus on choice of
methods, terminology, recognition of what kind of experiment is likely
to contribute to sharpening the insights, then the second phase,
normal science begins.
3. From time to time, a science may go through a phase of
revolutionary science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions
A scientific community cannot practice its trade without some set of
received beliefs.
These beliefs form the foundation of the educational initiation that
prepares and licenses the student for professional practice.
The nature of the rigorous and rigid" preparation helps ensure that
the received beliefs exert a "deep hold on the student's mind.
Normal science is predicated on the assumption that the scientific
community knows what the world is like —scientists take great pains to
defend that assumption.
To this end, normal science often suppresses fundamental novelties
because they are necessarily subversive of its basic commitments.
Research is a strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into the
conceptual boxes supplied by professional education.
A shift in professional commitments to shared assumptions takes place
when an anomaly subverts the existing tradition of scientific
practice.
These shifts are what Kuhn describes as scientific revolutions—the
tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of
normal science.
New assumptions (paradigms/theories) require the reconstruction of
prior assumptions and the reevaluation of prior facts. This is
difficult and time consuming. It is also strongly resisted by the
established community.
When a shift takes place, a scientist's world is qualitatively
transformed [and] quantitatively enriched by fundamental novelties of
either fact or theory.
Structure of Scientific Revolutions (outline)
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhn.html
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolution, and
fathered, defined and popularized the concept of "paradigm shift" (p.
10). Kuhn argues that scientific advancement is not evolutionary, but
rather is a "series of peaceful interludes punctuated by
intellectually violent revolutions", and in those revolutions "one
conceptual world view is replaced by another".
Think of a Paradigm Shift as a change from one way of thinking to
another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis.
It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change.
For example, agriculture changed early primitive society. The
primitive Indians existed for centuries roaming the earth constantly
hunting and gathering for seasonal foods and water. However, by 2000
B.C., Middle America was a landscape of very small villages, each
surrounded by patchy fields of corn and other vegetables.
Agents of change helped create a paradigm-shift moving scientific
theory from the Plolemaic system (the earth at the center of the
universe) to the Copernican system (the sun at the center of the
universe), and moving from Newtonian physics to Relativity and Quantum
Physics. Both movements eventually changed the world view. These
transformations were gradual as old beliefs were replaced by the new
paradigms creating "a new gestalt" (p. 112).
Likewise, the printing press, the making of books and the use of
vernacular language inevitable changed the culture of a people and had
a direct affect on the scientific revolution. Johann Gutenberg's
invention in the 1440's of movable type was an agent of change. Books
became readily available, smaller and easier to handle and cheap to
purchase. Masses of people acquired direct access to the scriputures.
Attitudes began to change as people were relieved from church
domination.
Similarly, agents of change are driving a new paradigm shift today.
The signs are all around us. For example, the introduction of the
personal computer and the internet have impacted both personal and
business environments, and is a catalyst for a Paradigm Shift. We are
shifting from a mechanistic, manufacturing, industrial society to an
organic, service based, information centered society, and increases in
technology will continue to impact globally. Change is inevitable.
It's the only true constant.
In conclusion, for millions of years we have been evolving and will
continue to do so. Change is difficult. Human Beings resist change;
however, the process has been set in motion long ago and we will
continue to co-create our own experience. Kuhn states that "awareness
is prerequisite to all acceptable changes of theory" (p. 67). It all
begins in the mind of the person. What we perceive, whether normal or
metanormal, conscious or unconscious, are subject to the limitations
and distortions produced by our inherited and socially conditional
nature. However, we are not restricted by this for we can change. We
are moving at an accelerated rate of speed and our state of
consciousness is transforming and transcending. Many are awakening as
our conscious awareness expands.
http://www.taketheleap.com/define.html