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The Worst Enemy of Progress: Bad Foundations? (4/5)
So in the previous episode of our Progress series we have seen that standards are good for you. In fact, without standards, you would not be able to read this article at all. You would probably not even own anything that is capable of displaying this article either: the only reason the chips in your electronic device could be build, and can talk to each other, are standards.
This is also how science works: using common standards (of measurement), one theory can be based on another. This way, researchers don’t have to go and re-invent all the foundations and theories before they finally can start producing original work¹.
So old is good, right? We can build on a foundation happily ever after?
We can. Except, of course, when the foundation is flawed. Because the same principles that finally allow us to build high, also allow us to build on errors of others until our house falls down.
Take the science of Astronomy for example. For thousands of years it was nothing more than astrology — because it could not provide us with any insights more useful then that. Because, in turn, it was based on the flawed premise: the Ptolemaic Universe. It was only after Copernicus and Galilei that we started to be able to look into the actual workings of the universe, because they found the fundamental…
