Motherboard

Like something ripped from distopian post-modern science fiction, this month’s giant ash cloud single-handedly grounded flights across Europe and, temporarily at least, brought economic activity throughout the continent to a standstill. To Edge, the whole amazing scenario is a chance to fire up neurons. They enlisted nearly three dozen thinkers to ponder the effects of the cloud: “What do the psychologists have to say about the way the decision-makers have acted? What have the behavioral economists learned from this? What can science bring to the table?”

A sense of vulnerability pervades the responses. As artist Matthew Ritchie writes in, it

marked a signal transitional moment in the history of modern human culture. Faced with an unprecedented trans-national environmental crisis and without an obvious humanitarian ‘rescue and rebuild’ narrative; we just shut down the world."

Financial analyst Emanuel Derman, points out that

Old technology — propellor-driven planes — would not have been grounded by ash. More efficient, more vulnerable.

Social scientist Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran compares ashes to emotions and points to the troubled relationship between humans and nature:

Two ideas should be kept in mind when dealing with this epistemological and methodological entity called “nature”.

First, we do not have the “real” image of nature, and maybe never will. We only have models, theories and simulations, in which “facts” are defined by a partial number of variables.

Second, we need more integrative thinking: Scientists working together will recognize the complexity of nature, have a more accurate image of it, and will stop proposing naïve models. This applies to understanding volcanoes, brains, markets and stars.

We cannot surrender to the complexity. When we stop trying to explain nature through science, we try it through religion or myth. Curiosity is also a force of nature, and science is the best tool available to understand the world — and maybe, just maybe, even control it without damaging it. That’s the best we can do with uncontrollable forces of nature: From volcanic ashes to emotions.

Physicist Anton Zelinger considers the vices of our over-reliance on technology, amidst weak climate models and vulnerable internet servers – and the virtues of sharing a cab ride:

…Our society is too much dependent on computers. Firstly, the whole volcanic ash cloud story shows us that decision makers rely too much on computer models, however good they might have been. For the first few days, nobody bothered to check whether the predictions of these models were correct or, if correct, applicable to the safety of airplanes. Nobody likes to make real decisions any more. A decision is characterized by the very fact that there is not enough evidence to make it into a logically compelling conclusion. Furthermore, our society has come to believe too much that everything can be controlled and all risks can be checked, no matter what the cost. There is no absolute safety.

Another critical dependence on computer technology became evident during the volcanic ash incident. I was trapped in Oxford, trying to get back to Vienna. There was not only no possibility to reserve train seats for the Eurostar, the train underneath the Channel, or for regular TGV trains from Paris to Germany. It was not even possible to obtain via Internet or telephone any information whether the trains were completely occupied or not. All relevant Web sites simply collapsed. This was the hour of personal black market solutions to finally get a train ticket to Paris and the hour of last-minute personal decisions. It was actually fun to finally end up in a shared taxi with seven others, mostly students, driving through the night from Paris to Frankfurt in Germany, an experience I wouldn’t like to miss.

Alexandra Zukerman, a researcher in philosophy of science, thinks of the productive effects (and metaphors) offered up by natural disasters, and notes the temptation to let the lava flow, to let the cloud disrupt, perhaps as a reminder that in spite of our technology, we need a lack of control. “Volcanoes are age-old revolutionary devices,” she writes.

…Over two centuries later, a volcanic eruption in Iceland has put technology, the ultimate manifestation of human progress and our victory over nature, at bay by grounding thousands of airplanes around the world.

Is part of the allure of the volcanic ash that it presents an opportunity to reinvent ourselves? Or to others, the prospect of perfecting ourselves?

Read the rest at Edge.org