ABSTRACT
The development of natural science accordingly requires technological escalation. The appropriate picture is not, of course, one of geographical exploration but rather of the physical exploration —and subsequent theoretical systematization —of phenomena distributed over the parametric space of the physical quantities spreading out all about us. In developing natural science, we humans began by exploring the world in our own locality, not just our spatial neighborhood but—more far-reachingly—our parametric neighborhood in the space of physical variables such as temperature, pressure, and electric charge. As science endeavors to extend its “mastery over nature,” it becomes enmeshed in a technology-intensive arms race against nature, with all of the practical and economic implications characteristic of such process. The enormous power, sensitivity, and complexity deployed in experimental science have not been sought for their own sake but rather because the research frontier has moved on into an area where this sophistication is the indispensable requisite of ongoing progress.
