Imagine an alternative science, or sciences.

overglow — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:23:05 -0800

Vandana Singh is a science fiction writer and a physicist. She describes her work as "ponder[ing] deep questions about the universe." In a series of three essays for Strange Horizons she just does that, probing the relationships between (as her subtitle indicates) science, emotions and culture. The questions she raises include:

How does the culture of science differ from place to place, such as the U.S. and India? What is the connection, if any, between the paucity of female scientists and the culture of science? Is the content of science ever affected by the culture of scientific practice?

In exploring these questions, Singh draws from a wide range of sources. She takes into account her own experiences as an Indian woman practicing science in a variety of cultural contexts. She reads books, essays, and scientific papers by physicists, social scientists and feminist scholars. She conducts interviews with some of these living, contemporary thinkers while drawing connections to the work of such indispensable scientists as Einstein and Bohr. In her explorations, Singh combines the scientific rigor and fluency of a physicist with the wide open imagination of a speculative fiction writer. She strives to "avoid the pitfall of relativism and science as a purely social construct" while also examining the "[historical] evidence that newcomers with different perspectives can revitalize a field and shock it out of complacency". She concludes her ponderings with some thought-provoking questions:

If we were to construct paradigms from the new physics, from non-Western and non-gendered cultures, imagined or real, what would they give us? If we employed the freedoms hinted it in the Baradian view, would we see the universe in a multitude of wondrous ways, as in a kaleidoscope? How would we then practice science? How would we then live?

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Imagine an alternative science, or sciences.