Page Content (OCR)
CHAPTER IN THE JUNGLE OF MODELS, regardless of the discipline studied, it is difficult to be prepared for everything. There are indeed countless theories, varying from formalism, adhered to by so many scientists, to personal interpretations supported by small groups of scientists and, more simply, different conceptions or propos- als. There are even theories within theories. The example of the Big Bang, also a speculation, is significant. There are no fewer than some one hundred versions of inflation” theories about the first second of an alleged explosion of the universe alone (in fact a dilation of space), which is but one possibility to describe the beginning of the Big Bang; another mere assumption. Quantum mechanics is in the same boat. Without speaking of the string theory that has no fewer than five"! thought currents, the quan- tum theory is split into no fewer than nine that are a cross with strange notions, such as materialism, idealism, non-local hidden variables, space, time and the oneness of the universe.” There are numerous other, less-known options that just have not received enough media publicity attention. Whether we speak of the post-Darwin evolution, biology, chem- istry, ecology, geophysics, but also of social sciences — in fact all disci- plines — there is not a single research field that has not been the stage of academic and sometimes quite unbecoming confrontations. Is there anyone without a personal theory? The insights of louts regarding televised science or of the written press are an illusion. It seems indeed that consensus prevails. How- ever, reality is quite different. So many theories and we do not have a clue as to what to do with them. Choice; the worst embarrassment. 93 The market of theories