Why it's good to be wrong

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We tend to think we're pretty much right most of the time. And not just each of us individually, but society as a whole. At any given point in history we tend to believe we know pretty much most of what's knowable and that which we think we know is right. Arrogant, ignorant or both? Just think about the guys telling you what you hear can't be right because they understand your limits and the limits of our technology. In the early 1900's it was widely thought that most everything that could be known had already been discovered and students who wanted to enter into the sciences were discouraged from doing so by those that believed this. These points in history, where we believe there's not much left to learn, tend to precede major leaps in technology and typically indicate the calm stagnation before the storm of change. We knew "everything" about recording and analog reproduction before the onslaught of digital audio flipped that notion on its head. We may be at another juncture right now. You know that because of the group saying "we're exceeding limits of human hearing". And being comfortable with being wrong is the best medicine for embracing the changes to come. Einstein would have been the first to preach the same advice until it was his turn to be wrong. When the idea of Quantum Entanglementbecame known, a theory (at first, now proven) that showed when you affect the spin of one particle in a group of related particles, whatever the spin direction is changed to, the other particles will change their spin to match, without regard to distance between the particles (even a trillion miles). How is this information communicated between the particles instantly and at such a distance? Einstein refused to believe it could be so. Why? Because it violates what he was convinced is right: the "law" of the speed of light. We "know" that nothing can go faster in our observable universe than light (a correct observation), yet Quantum Entanglement proves two object can somehow communicate without regard to the immutable law. So does this mean we're wrong about the speed of light or does it mean we're just asking the wrong questions? Being comfortable with being wrong is the best medicine to discover how to be right.
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Paul McGowan

Founder & CEO

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