Love is like Phlogiston - science as better communication.

                                         
                                                    Sophia- Pneumatic

       Every year, between the start of July and the end of August, Japan's Mt Fuji is alive with city-dwellers determined to conquer the famous peak. At this time, the shops on the slopes of the volcano do a roaring trade in small cans of oxygen as even the most unenlightened of Tokyo troglodytes recognises the need for this vital gas to keep our body working.  
         If, however, you were attempting to climb Mt Olympus in ancient Greece and felt the same need for a shot of 02, the locals would probably politely suggest that you suck in some of the plentiful supply of pneuma that is all around you, as that's clearly all that a body needs.

                         Communication is always INFO ---------> IDEA

          Wherever we may be from, all of our ancestors long ago looked up at the Sun, the Moon and the Stars and tried to offer each other explanations.  Understandably, considering the demanding circumstances of their lives, these explanations were largely about a god or gods who were quick to anger and whose opaque schemes for human-kind were largely inexplicable. Given the information they had to work with, I can only admire their ingenuity in coming up with anything at all.
           And yet, at the same time, these people were naturally developing certain techniques and methods that would serve them brilliantly for survival. They learned how and where to catch food and which plants to eat or use as medicine, as well as developing cultural ideas and habits that would contribute to the prosperity of the group. They were successful largely because they communicated knowledge to each other and to the next generation. Human beings over time developed the four most basic tools of human communication:-

                             Describing + Explaining + Asking + Checking

      Of course, it is much easier to use these tools when you are not worrying about food or the proximity of sabre-tooth tigers to your infants. So communication took great leaps and bounds when societies were forged that allowed people the time to just sit around and think and to be able to discuss their ideas at length. In  places like ancient Greece, where farming had led to the development of civilisation, people began to propose ideas about how things worked that went beyond formerly simplistic explanations like: "It's God!".
    Theories about the human body and society and the mind were all described and explained as fully as was possible, as reason and inquiry were allowed to flourish and philosophy was allowed to grow.
     Philosophy or the love of wisdom, may be best described as: trying to understand how things work. Defined like this, it allows us to see that philosophy is vital to human survival and prosperity. The desire to understand how things work has given us all the benefits of modern life.  Also, we can understand that throughout history all cultures have basically sought the same targets of philosophy: survival and prosperity; so that we should not consider philosophy to be only the sport of ancient g(r)eeks.
             For philosophy you need to communicate, and we are all born with the ability to communicate. Philosophy is our birth-right. It is our cultures that strip this from us. Gradually, over human history, our cultures have become more tolerant of communication, more welcoming to philosophy, but it is still early days considering the possibilities before us.

          
           INFO--------> IDEA  therefore  more INFO--------> more IDEA

          

                                              What's the bleeding time?
                                      
        England, at the end of the 17th Century, thanks to some lucky accidents of history and certainly not to any superiority of English blood,  was enjoying the fruits of its empire. One of the most succulent of these growths upon the tree of knowledge would be the development of what is often referred to as the scientific revolution.
        Using a commercially-available microscope, the English Physician William Harvey observed the hearts of insects acting as pneumatic pumps. From these observations of our tiny cousins, Harvey developed his theory of blood circulation. It is sobering to consider that a reasonable theory of how our blood works within us is only 300 years old.
        Any theory is most simply an explanation. If people are communicating effectively then any explanation will be naturally met by questions asking for more information or checking an idea.     Harvey was able to provide the information gained from his observations with the microscope as well as describing and explaining how blood flows by way of experiment. The use of an experiment allows other people to check the information and the idea. The modern practice of science requires describing and explaining and asking and checking as standard. Thus it can be seen that "the most precious thing we have " as Einstein said of science, describes as well our best efforts to communicate.

            This dawn of reason, this era of Halley, Harvey and Hooke, would come to be seen as the time of transition from alchemy to chemistry; when natural philosophy became science.  But, whatever you want to call it, it seems fair to say that, most basically, the explanations got better.
         In 1667, a learned person attempting to get the better of any mountain in Japan or Greece or anywhere, may well have wondered about the new-fangled theory of Phlogiston as they attempted to light a fire to keep warm on the slopes. This theory attempted to explain what happened during combustion by describing an element called phlogiston that was responsible for how well things burned. Until the end of the next century, phlogiston would provide the best explanation that people could come up with.
        The phlogiston theory would sputter on for a hundred years until the French scientist  Antoine Lavoisier  defined both oxygen and hydrogen and his experiments involving H2O would help explain how it was that oxygen  was the key to understanding combustion.
        Phologiston's spark was no more, ironically snuffed out by oxygen.  Lavoisier himself would meet his own fate at the mercy of a Revolutionary court, that would see fit to put him to death for the heinous crime of adultering the nation's tobacco supply. With water.
       
      If we wish to avoid a future where knowledge and information is feared and those who seek to understand and explain are considered too dangerous to live, we must encourage science.
      Science, however, can only flourish through better communication. Whether it be improved instruments to provide better information  or encouraging a culture where people can ask questions or provide alternative explanations without fear of an inquisition,  science, or indeed, the love of wisdom is most simply an ongoing conversation with the universe.
         As the universe is a little shy at times and reluctant to explain itself, doesn't it make sense for human beings to be encouraging as many people as possible to be involved with this conversation? As one of the finest examples of the only thing we ever do, science is way too important to be left to just those who get paid for it. Or those who seek only profit from it.
               

                                      According to Sweet, Love is like Oxygen.