Sunday, January 11, 2009

Why Do You Dream Flat Tires?

You may recognize the title of this post as a line from a Joni Mitchell song. I found it so poignant that it has stuck with me from the time I first heard it so many years ago. All of recorded history is replete with the evidence of how the human race has dreamed flat tires by creating models of the physical universe that were later found to be in error. One of the most famous was a model of the Earth as the center of the universe. As a person watches the ever-changing position of the sun and moon across a diurnal cycle and ties that information to the idea that the Earth seems to be still, it is no surprise that the intuitive conclusion would be that the heavens are in motion around one centrally positioned planet.

That may seem like a Dark Ages concept in our modern world, but there are still plenty of current models in use that may not stand the test of scrutiny for much longer. Visit The Sage Age to read the full article and discover how the misuse of models can limit understanding.

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