It is a dream to think we can modernise Science, but if we did, where would we start? My own dream, quite literally, is to take it back to basics, starting again. Find what is truly good about Science and reboot it all based on that. Yet keeping it in mind, vital to our civilisation’s survival, that this is all about human beings and humans are naturally quite corrupt, with tendencies to perpetuate what is bad from our past, and this is not something we can stop globally, at least, not this side of kingdom-come. I personally would go back to the best scientific things we learn from our ancient past, from writings from ancient times we call holy writ, from one of the most revered of our ancestors, known to Babylonians as Utnapistim, or Ziusudra, and in English versions of ancient scriptures called Noah. The mysterious book of Genesis is mysterious in that much of it mirrors other ancient writings such as the 2200 BC Epic of Gilgamesh. They recount about Noah in very similar events told in a similar sequence, perhaps indicating they had a common source, among various sources, perhaps Noah himself. Genesis tells, in its Flood account, of a series of empirical experiments conducted by Noah which folk history has preserved almost universally in the symbol for peace of a dove with an olive branch in its beak. Noah needed to know whether flood waters had subsided sufficiently to leave the Ark and venture again onto the land that had been covered in very deep flood water. So he conducted a series of tests. Noah first sent out a raven from the Ark to see if it could find dry land. He sent out a bird, a raven, from the Ark. The raven, being a scavenger bird, did not return to the Ark and likely found a place to perch. It would have found plenty of carcasses to feed from. After the raven, Noah sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground. The dove returned to the Ark because it found no place to rest, indicating that the waters had not yet receded. It would not have eaten flesh but needed vegetation so its return showed there was not vegetation available yet. After waiting for some time, Noah sent out the dove a second time. This time, the dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak, indicating that it had found an olive tree growing, which suggested that the waters were receding, and there was dry land. These were empirical experiments. He accepted the results as indicative of what he needed to know. He assimilated increased knowledge from them and they were repeatable tests. He interpreted their results intelligently. He persisted in the tests until they indicated what he needed, that he could leave the Ark. Later he recorded it or related it so it made its way into records from which civilisation could learn how to run good tests. Perhaps it is the oldest scientific study on record. Civilisation clearly learned from it, as we see in use of the dove symbol with olive branch in its mouth. Do we need to call it Science? Not necessarily. He must have recorded what he did, what happened and what he deduced, much as we are taught in elementary empirical science today to record a Test, an Observation and an Inference. So we should keep this as good practice which has provided civilisation with best practice lessons ever since. Let us go back to this. But calling it Science is unnecessary. Today we might say “I did this. And this happened.” Let us learn from Noah and Genesis in the Good Book that this is simply how to be an intelligent human being and to serve our civilisation well. God will be pleased too if we do these things.
