Science²⁰⁰¹

Scienceis the most powerful form of time-binding. It is the search for the truth.
It is that process that humans use to discover the rulesthat govern Universe—to
discover the lawsof Nature.

Those who search for the truth—those who desire to discover the rules that govern
Universe—those who seek to discover the laws of Nature—are called scientists.
Kenneth Bouldingtells us that scientists can be divided into three groups:

“Writers, thinkers, and scientists can no doubt be divided into three
categories—those who are behindtheir time, those who are withtheir
time, and those who are beforetheir time. The first disappear into
obscurity, the second become famous and fill the history books, and the
third have to wait to be recognized.”¹

Issac Newton, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, and more
recently Jonas Salk, Francis Crick, and James Watsonare examples of scientists
who belong to the secondcategory—those who are withtheir time. They are indeed
famous and fill the history books.

UnCommon Science will present the ideas and discoveries of a number of scientists
who fall into the third category—those who areaheadof their time.

It is painful for scientists to live and work ahead of their time. It usually means that
they are not supported and end up sacrificing much of their personal life to the
support of their own scientific work. Worse than this is the fact that they often work
with no opportunity for scientific feedback. They are essentially without peers.
Sometimes they will discover a few who understand their work, but often they work in
scientific isolation. These scientists who work ahead of their time have no opportunity
for dialogue.

¹Mark Davidson, Uncommon Sense —The Life and Thought of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Jeremy P.
Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles, 1983

Science 2001
Introduction

UnCommon Sense Library Volume II
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken

3

As Harry Rathbunwriting in 1976 explains:

“Discovery of truth, of reality, of what needs to be done to serve the goal,
involves dialogue—asking questions, probing, investigating, testing. That
is the essence of the scientific method which has brought us so far in
discovering important relationships that exist in the physical world.”²

Without benefit of scientific dialogue, scientists often create an eccentric language
and personal semantics to describe their discoveries. These eccentric languages and
personal semantics can make understanding their works even more difficult.

The history of science is filled with examples of later scholars trying to decipher and
understand the words and discoveries of earlier scientists who worked aheadof their
time. And far too often, important discoveries are simply discarded without
understanding and lost forever.

Many of the scientists whose work I will be presenting in UnCommon Science lived and
worked ahead of their time. And some of them created eccentric language and personal
semantics to describe their discoveries. Therefore, I will occasionally play the role of
translator, creating new metaphors and glossaries to serve as communication
bridges for understanding their work.

Many Voices

UnCommon Science relies heavily on the work of many scientists. Time-binding by
definition implies that all scientific works must to a large extent be corroborations.
Therefore I have abandoned the practice of paraphrasing the writings of others, in
favor of presenting their work in their own words.

This is accomplished through the liberal use of “direct quotations” from their
original writings. This sometimes makes for long quotations, but does allow the reader
the opportunity to experience the original concepts in voices of the scientists who
made those discoveries.

Taking great care to avoid disturbing the meaning of the original writings, I have
occasionally acted as editor making minor changes to increase clarity, or to

²Harry J. Rathbun, Creative Initiative: Guide To Fulfillment, Creative Initiative Foundation, Palo Alto,
California, 1976

Science 2001
Introduction

UnCommon Sense Library Volume II
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken

4

underscore the relevance of a particular quoted passage to my own work. I have
sometimes addedboldfont or italicsfor my own emphasis.

Whenever and wherever, I have disagreed with a quoted scientist, I have made
*annotationswhich are clearly demarcated by copper colored fontpreceded by an
asterisk, or contained within(parentheses). This distinction is made to insure that
the integrity of the quoted passages remains intact and uncorrupted.

My presentation of these original works of earlier scientists should allow the reader a
deeper understanding of the process of discoveryand of time-bindingitself. While
some of the quotations are quite lengthy, your reading of them should not be
considered as a replacement for reading the original works themselves. I have
carefully creditedand referencedall quotations to facilitate your finding the
originals for your own independent examination.

Remember also that these quotations are themselves bound in time. They will all be
datedso the reader is aware of the time whenthey were written. I will also use
various mechanisms to demarcate when other scientists are speaking to aid the
reader in keeping track of the flow of ideas.

My voice

My use of extensive quotations in this volume means that hereI have often acted as an
editorfor others rather than as advocatefor my own science. I am honored to serve
as editor for these fine scientists, and hope that my presentation of their work will
make them better known to their fellow humans, and allow them to receive the credit
they deserve for the great understanding they have added to human ‘knowing’.³

However, this is not to say that this volume is only in the voices of others. I too will
speak throughout adding my voice to this chorus of scientists.

Now as stated in the general Introduction to UnCommon Sense, I occasionally use
redundancy to emphasize important points. Redundant materialis demarcated in a
dark blue font. Although some passages are redundant, they are always presented

³‘knowing’—I use single quotes around any ‘word’ that has different meanings in different contexts.
This is to avoid miscommunication. This convention was invented by Alfred Korzybski to alert the reader to
multiordinal terms. See:Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, The Colonial Press Inc., Clinton,
Mass., 1933

Science 2001
Introduction

UnCommon Sense Library Volume II
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken

5

in a new contextwhich results in new and additional meaning. Those readers who
examine the redundant material in light of this new context will gain the greatest
understanding. My reason for designating the redundant material with a special
font coloris to avoid the confusion of deja vu.

The next passage is our first redundancy. It is taken from the general Introduction to
volume one of UnCommon Sensethat was published as We Can All Win!—The
Basics:

Bootstrap to knowing

I entered medical school in 1966. In my first week, I would learn one of the most
valuable lessons of my life.

A fellow classmate and I were in the medical library at our school. We had been reading
some science papers assigned in an earlier class, when I noticed he was reading one
paper, that I didn’t have listed on my assignment sheet. He seemed much more
interested in that paper than in those from our assignment sheet.

My classmate would read a paragraph or two and then hurry off to the big medical
dictionary across the room. He made so many trips, I surmised the reading must be
very difficult.

Finally ,my curiosity got the better of me, and I also was beginning to worry that I
might have missed getting the assignment to read that particular paper, so I queried
him.

First he responded by saying, “No, its not part of our assignment, I’m just reading this
for myself. The author is a Nobel laureate.”

He started to return to his reading, but then he paused for a moment to look me over
and for some reason he decided to share his secret with me. “It’s something more than
that. It is a secret way to learn that my Father taught me.”

I leaned closer and he continued: “When you read and understand the work of a
world’s leading expert, you can become the world’s second leading expert.”

At first I didn’t know what to say. The thought was so foreign to me. I said nothing and

Science 2001
Introduction

UnCommon Sense Library Volume II
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken

6

returned to my study of the assigned readings. Later that evening after class, my
mind kept coming back to what my classmate had said, “When you read and
understand the work of a world’s leading expert, you can become the world’s second
leading expert.”

Shortcut

Could it really be true? Could getting ahead be as simple as finding out who the experts
were and studying their most advanced works.

To think that I could catch up to a world expert by spending a few hours in the library
seemed an oversimplification, and somehow terrible at the same time. Science was
supposed to be much harder than that. In the next few years, I would learn that
science is much harder than that and yet discover for myself the deep truth of my
classmate’s lesson.

Science was hard, and as I began using the bootstrap I discovered there was nothing
easy about understanding the advanced papers of experts. I had somehow missed the
implication of my fellow student’s repeated trips to the reference dictionary that
morning in the library. Now I finally understood. There is a shortcut in science, but
like most shortcuts, the path is a more difficult one.

You can learn fastest from the world’s experts if you are ready to invest the effort to
learn the expert’s language, definitions and methods.

Since then, this lesson has served me well. I have saved years of study by using the
knowledge of the world’s leading experts to bootstrap myself to a position of better and
more complete understanding. And always, with more understanding comes more
control.

I have filled UnCommon Sciencewith the understanding and wisdom of many of the
world’s leading experts. Please make their expert knowledge your own. Please invest a
few hours in learning the language and methods of the experts and bootstrap yourself
to a more powerful and positive future.

The nonscientist reader may find some parts of UnCommon Sciencedifficult.
Fortunately, it is not necessary to completely masterthis volume in order to
participate in a synergic future.

Science 2001
Introduction

UnCommon Sense Library Volume II
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken

7