Are costly experiments and complex tools necessary to understand Nature?
We can define Science as the body of knowledge that mankind acquired in their quest to understand the Nature and Creation. The process involves making observations and then seeking explanations for the observed phenomena. For example, we see an apple fall to the ground. Then we try to explain why that apple falls? One may propose that it is because the earth attracts objects. Then the next question comes. How/why the earth attracts objects? And it goes deeper and deeper.
We try to find a rational explanation for each observed phenomenon that interests us and intrigues us. The explanations per se can’t be observed especially as one goes deeper. So one must go by logic and by making extrapolations / analogies to similar situations which are observable.
Most observations/ phenomena in Nature will yield to commonsense or every day knowledge, at least to certain depth. But as one goes deeper, it requires more concentrated thinking. When an observation defies explanation, one may think of doing some experiment to study and understand the hidden mechanisms and phenomena underlying that observation. But able minds rarely ever resort to complex experiments or advanced tools to understand and explain Nature’s phenomena. Information gained with their five senses is more than enough for them. The Sages of ancient India understood this universe and creation with just their senses and without any complex tools. It’s only the less intelligent people who would resort to costly experiments, dig mega tunnels, smash atoms, kill animals, use telescopes, microscopes etc to understand Nature.
For every hidden/invisible phenomenon, there exists an identical/analogous observable phenomenon in Nature. What happens at the cosmic level and what happens at the quantum level can be understood from what we see in our everyday world. The structure of this Universe is same everywhere and it simply repeats itself at every level. In other words, the Universe is like a holographic picture i.e. every bit of it contains the information of the whole. So if we could understand our surroundings, we could comprehend the whole Universe. That’s how the Rishis of ancient times came to know about the whole Universe at once and also the past and the future. Surely one doesn’t have to study/observe things at every level nor does one need to go far and wide in spaceships to understand this Universe.
And experimentation has its own disadvantages (keeping aside the mishaps, cost etc):
Chances of misinterpretation, getting lost in the data: Experiments yield more data. More data leads to more confusion. When people can’t process simple and limited data, it is unlikely that they can process/comprehend large data.
And as one goes farther and deeper from the observable world, devising experiments becomes more and more difficult and costly. Also one will have to rely upon more indirect data which would require more intelligent processing, so more chances of misinterpretation by those who actually undertake them. So one must always be highly skeptical of the claims of people who resort to complex experiments and build things like LHC, LIGO etc. Intelligent people can grasp everything just from few surface clues, so experimentation becomes superfluous for them. It is only those who need more clues i.e the less abled minds who would resort to experimentation. But they are also the ones who are likely to misinterpret.
Merely knowing more details about the Nature and knowing stuff like cell biology, structure of DNA, atoms, quarks etc is no good unless that adds to the wisdom and helps one lead a happy and peaceful life. If the Rishis of ancient India really wanted, they would have written detailed treatises upon genetics and atoms, and they would have also talked about the exact composition of sewage wastes generated in the would-be cities of modern world. But they knew all that would be superfluous for happy living. They knew that information sewage would only drown people’s minds and steal their happiness.
