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Abstract

Human knowledge is largely drawn from two sources: one, generally known as science, and the other broadly grouped as faith. The famous paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould coined the term Non-Overlapping Magisteria (NOMA) to explain the difference between our convictions based on fact versus value. It seems, however, that the issue of sustained development or, more broadly, our existence in this rapidly changing world is a value problem that is intricately twined and overlaps with our ability to form consensus based on facts and experiences. Present-day artificial intelligence and Big Data, for instance, are founded on mathematical counting, which began when we acquired the ability to think of abstract objects such as numbers. Our civilized existence was only possible because we were lucky to start on an appropriate planet. Scientists, in many ways, are modern-day philosophers because the amount of new knowledge generated in science and technology each year is simply too large for an expert in one or a few fields, let alone by one trained in a non-scientific discipline, to grasp. Moreover, scientists are trained to solve problems. The success of science has resulted in several unexpected outcomes. One is that science is considered so important for the economic growth of a country that important scientific policies are determined by government bureaucrats for the sake of national interest. Ironically, economists and social scientists seem to have greater faith in science than us. In this presentation, an argument is made on why involvement in social problems is important for geoscientists.