In movies, unlike other literary forms, there exists a special genre known as the ‘road movie.’ Road movies typically depict journeys along paths where various encounters occur. But why has the road, among numerous spaces, established itself as a genre? We don’t hear about genres named after cities, mountains, rivers, or seas. Perhaps it’s because roads are connected to the concept of home, which in turn connects to family. The 1991 film “My Own Private Idaho” is about Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves) searching for their respective mothers and fathers.
Both protagonists are drifters in Portland. Mike has left his mother in Idaho, while Scott, the son of Portland’s mayor, rebels against his father by living as a drifter. The film, which portrays two contrasting worlds, begins with Mike’s monologue on a desolate desert road:
“There’s not another road anywhere that looks like this road – I mean, exactly like this road. It’s one kind of place. One of a kind… like someone’s face…t.”
In the film “Secret Sunshine,” Song Kang-ho suggests that the world is the same everywhere, whereas River Phoenix in “My Own Private Idaho” argues that every road, like a person’s face, is unique. Indeed, no two roads are the same. The paths we take to school or work are never identical each day. Every road and every person have commonalities and differences, and by observing these, we understand the world.
Stars twinkle in the night sky, all rising in the east and setting in the west, seemingly revolving around the Earth. This observation leads to the belief that stars move around the Earth. However, Copernicus observed that some stars, known as planets, move erratically among the multitude of stars. This observation led Copernicus to propose the heliocentric theory, where Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun. The heliocentric theory was discovered through observation, which often involves breaking down the whole into focused parts. Copernicus focused on the planets among the many stars, illustrating the power of observation. While most tasks require organization, all knowledge begins with observation, necessitating that we bring information and data into focus.
Everything we observe is slightly different, even if it’s the same in essence, because people perceive things in their own ways. A camera captures what we might miss, as it doesn’t discriminate against what it sees, unlike humans who tend to see only what they want and edit accordingly. As Leonard in “Memento” notes, thoughts can become ‘interpretations’ rather than facts. Each object contains not only shape and color but also texture, unseen structure, technology, and history. Thus, observation isn’t just about seeing; it requires depth and accuracy. Fortunately, our sensory organs and brains have evolved to listen, touch, and feel to understand. River Phoenix’s character claims to be a connoisseur of roads, saying he has “tasted roads all his life,” indicating a deep, sensory understanding beyond mere sight.
I’m a connoisseur of roads. I’ve been tasting roads my whole life. This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world.
We infer a person’s emotions and history from their facial expressions. Despite potential errors, this synthesis of sensory judgments helps us piece together fragmentary information. A keen observer can make the unseen visible through patience, interest, and concentration. Observation requires a purpose because we notice what interests us. This is why we emphasize ‘purpose-driven knowledge’ (Know-for-what). A person preparing to open a restaurant sees the city filled with restaurant signs because their brain directs their focus. Similarly, we hear conversations in a noisy market and find friends in a crowded stadium because of our ability to concentrate on specific goals. While this selective perception can lead to biases and errors, it’s also a fortunate ability that helps us focus amidst potential chaos.
Some people notice details in daily life, like spotting errors in movies or remembering the arrangement of objects after a brief glance, a skill honed by habitual observation. The authors of “Sparks of Genius” emphasize that observation involves using all senses, like River Phoenix tasting roads. Efficiently using these senses often means empathizing with the object of observation. This method helps us understand others’ perspectives, known as emotional empathy. In “Sparks of Genius,” the authors argue that empathy is crucial even in scientific observation, highlighting Barbara McClintock’s genetic research on corn. She wrote:
“When I study corn, I am not outside them. I am a part of that system. I can see inside the chromosomes. Everything was actually in there. Amazingly, they felt like my friends. When I looked at corn, it felt like I was looking at myself. I often forgot myself. The most important thing was that I lost myself.”
Scientists typically maintain objectivity and distance from their subjects, but Robert Root-Bernstein points out that many great scientists, including Einstein and Feynman, began with emotional immersion. Einstein asked himself every morning, “If I were God, how would I create the universe?” Often, intuition and insight lead to discoveries, forming hypotheses tested through analysis and integration. McClintock’s corn, as her book title suggests, was more than an experiment; it was a friend and part of herself. Understanding comes from interest, focus, and empathy, suggesting observation is not purely objective. Norwood Hanson, in “Patterns of Discovery” (1958), noted that all observations and theories depend on the observer’s background knowledge. Observation is influenced by known theories and is never entirely independent of one’s goals and motivations.
In observation, we often break down the subject into parts to understand it. Whether starting with the forest and then looking at the trees, or vice versa, depends on the situation. Observing each tree is essential to understanding the forest. There are two main reasons for this detailed observation: first, human ability is limited. Our sensory organs aren’t exceptionally accurate, having evolved to quickly grasp ambiguity rather than precision. Second, the world is complex. But with detailed observation, we find that it consists of fractal patterns and a few fundamental elements. Despite their complexity, things are composed of countable components and their relationships.
Democritus in ancient Greece thought that the world consisted of indivisible atoms. Plato believed that the basic substances, or elements, were created from a prime matter by the gods. The basic elements were earth, fire, air, and water. Similarly, in the East, everything was explained through the five elements: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. While these ideas are abstract and conceptual, they laid the groundwork for science, which gradually broke down matter into smaller units.
British botanist Robert Brown discovered molecules and their motion. The molecule is the smallest unit retaining a substance’s properties. Further breaking down molecules leads to atoms, and atoms, in turn, consist of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Through continued efforts to divide matter, we’ve learned that molecules are made of atoms, which are composed of subatomic particles.
Analyzing subjects by breaking them into smaller units is the start of analytical thinking. However, there are limits to indiscriminate division; structure and knowledge are necessary for efficient analysis. More knowledge in a field makes analysis easier. For example, marketing analysis might start with the 4 Ps, while strategy formulation could begin with a SWOT analysis. These frameworks help simplify complex information into manageable parts.
There are 6.5 billion people, each with unique appearances and fingerprints. But by categorizing and organizing, the world becomes simpler. For instance, we sometimes judge personality by blood type, despite its scientific limitations. Shared genetics in families influence traits, making blood a sign of familial connection. Similarly, traditional Eastern medicine categorizes people into four types based on body constitution. These theories, though not scientifically proven, stem from observation and classification.
In academia, organizing and classifying what’s broken down is crucial. Chemistry advanced significantly with Mendeleev’s periodic table, which not only organizes elements but also reveals chemical laws. The periodic table shows that elements’ properties change periodically with their atomic numbers. John Newlands noted that elements with similar properties appear every eight elements, leading to the ‘law of octaves.’ Although later modified, this simplification spurred chemical advancements. Now, we can deduce elements’ physical and chemical properties, electron numbers, and masses from the periodic table.
Chemists were both clever and lucky, encountering periodic regularities early on. But when dealing with complex subjects, classification methods become crucial. Hanako Tetsuya and Keiko Okada, authors of “Logical Thinking,” suggest the MECE principle for organizing information: Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. This approach divides the whole into non-overlapping, comprehensive subsets. For example, classifying all roads into those for cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians, then further dividing car roads into highways, national roads, and local roads.
Biology is fundamentally the science of classification. The history of the discipline has evolved through the observation and discovery of new organisms. Although around 2 million species have been identified, it’s estimated that at least 10 million exist on Earth. A species is a group of genetically similar organisms capable of interbreeding. To identify and track all these species, a well-classified system is essential. About 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle devised the first classification system, dividing organisms into plants and animals. Over time, this system has become more complex, leading to today’s six-level classification: species, genus, family, order, class, and phylum, often depicted in a phylogenetic tree, or “tree of life.”
The problem is that new species are constantly being discovered, challenging the principle of MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive). Unlike chemists who have been relatively lucky in classifying matter, biologists have had to constantly adapt their classification systems. In 1735, Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified life into two kingdoms: animals and plants. With the discovery of microorganisms, German biologist Ernst Haeckel added a third kingdom, protists, in 1866. In 1937, French microbiologist Édouard Chatton distinguished protists into eukaryotes and prokaryotes based on cell structure. In 1969, American ecologist Robert Whittaker introduced a five-kingdom system, separating fungi from other groups. Further refinements have led to the current six-kingdom system, which includes archaea and viruses.
These classification changes have deepened our understanding of life. It’s more accurate to say that as our understanding of life has grown, our classification systems have evolved. Such systems simplify the complexity of life, making it more manageable to study.
The extensive discussion of chemistry, physics, biology, economics, and religion aimed to highlight that, despite vast knowledge in each field, the resulting principles and rules are relatively simple. Pioneers like Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein simplified the complex world into a few equations, enabling humanity to achieve remarkable feats, such as space travel.
However, not all laws are immutable truths. Many are approximate descriptions of nature’s regularities. Various general laws apply to human life as well. The saying by the protagonist in “Secret Sunshine” that “life is the same everywhere” suggests that most people live according to common principles. Unfortunately, the laws governing human society operate under specific conditions and can only be estimated within certain probabilities when future conditions are uncertain. These laws may need modification if the environment changes. Hence, finding personal principles aligned with natural laws is essential, as the closer they are to natural principles, the more effective they will be.
답글 남기기