The Davey Dialogues - An Exploration of the Scientific Foundations of Human Culture. John C. Madden
the facts, and spare me the details.” For others, the inclusion of some details of the route to new discoveries was more than just interesting. For them, these details represented the essential background needed for the dialogue to be credible, especially where the discussion challenged a long-held belief. It is difficult, if not impossible, to please everyone in this respect. But those readers who find uninteresting the details of how particular new discoveries were made are encouraged to make a guilt-free skip of the more detailed descriptions and look for the factual summary that occurs near the end of most of the dialogues.
The urge to skip may be particularly strong in the sections dealing with the biosciences. All life forms turn out to be extraordinarily intricate and complex chemical factories. Sadly, but inevitably, rather lengthy and confusing vocabularies have blossomed to describe the essential components of these factories, resulting in some heavy reading for the novice. A brief glossary to help the reader over rough spots is included at the back of the book.
The introduction of Davey as an interlocutor in the proceedings was strongly welcomed by some early readers but rejected by others who nonetheless enjoyed reading “the scientific parts”. If you find yourself agreeing with the latter readers, please do as they did, and move on quickly, though you may find that toward the end of the book, Davey lays out some rather interesting ideas.
There is a wealth of good science writing out there that treats in greater detail than I could cover all of the topics raised in this book. Many of my favourite books and writers appear in the Bibliography and can serve as useful routes to a better understanding of topics that have been rather summarily treated herein.
If there is a message in this book it is that we are most fortunate to live at a time when, perhaps for the first time ever, we can delight in a coherent story about us and our universe. What the physicists and the philosophers, the economists and the ecologists, the anthropologists and the animal behaviouralists, the religious historians, the neuroscientists and the biochemists are telling us by and large falls into place to provide a consistent story of the development of our universe and of humanity. Of course the story is not yet complete. There is much more to discover and understand, but the outlines are there in ample detail.
You, dear reader, will want to draw your own conclusions about what, if anything, this story is saying to you about how you should live your life. Whatever you conclude, it is my earnest hope that what you read herein will not only pique your interest and feed your curiosity, but will also help you to lead a happier and more rewarding life.
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to making this book much better than it would otherwise have been.
Special recognition goes to the late J. Fraser Mustard, who died in November 2011 after a stellar career in medical research, research management more generally and the development of public policy, particularly in the realms of population health and early childhood education and care. He was a brilliant and innovative medical educator and the founder and first president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), an international collaborative research centre without walls. Fraser’s energy and determination, coupled with his intellect and curiosity, sparked a career that earned him the rare distinction of being named a Companion of the Order of Canada. He is much missed by his many friends and supporters around the world.
Fraser was kind enough to read an early draft of this book in March 2010, but he didn’t just read the book and make a few comments! He summarized it in his own words, expressed strong and warm support, and added in a lot of judicious and helpful criticism – by far the most comprehensive and helpful commentary I received. With Fraser’s permission, a few of his words about the book are reproduced on the back cover.
Many others have provided less comprehensive but nonetheless extremely helpful commentary and analysis. I would particularly like to thank Valerie Dunsterville, David Gallop, John Helliwell, Richard Hooper, Bill McKerlich, J.B. Molson, Ian Robertson, Basil Rolfe, Arthur Scace, Mary Shakespeare, Lorne Whitehead, Jan Whitford and, of course, my wonderful family, with my wife Sidney at the head of the list.
Finding appropriate illustrations and gaining permissions to print them in a book can be a daunting task. I count myself particularly fortunate to have been able to track down an outstanding illustrator (and scholar) who encouraged me to draw on his vast store of bioscientific illustrations, hassle free. If you find that you appreciate his illustrations as much as I do, please join me in thanking Keith Roberts, whose artistic works are to be found in Dialogues 11, 13, 16 and 18.
Finally, I would like to thank my editor, Meaghan Craven, for her intelligent and diligent approach to editing the book. I can assure you that her attention to detail and thoughtful comments have done much to enhance the enjoyment of the reader.
In some circles, the offering of an apology in advance is viewed as a sign of weakness. I am not in that circle, at least in this instance. The writing of this book has meant that I had the opportunity to study many interesting fields of research in which I am not expert. Inevitably there will be some mistakes, some errors of omission and some misplaced emphasis.
I therefore apologise in advance for these transgressions. Should you detect any, please know that I would welcome any comments that you might care to make. Who knows, but there may be another edition which will afford an opportunity to make appropriate corrections.
Comments should be sent to: [email protected].
Thank you.
A Note for eBook Readers
The technical capabilities of ebook reading devices are still rapidly evolving. Furthermore, they come in a wide range of shape, sizes and capabilities. In many, if not most books, this is not a problem. However, in instances where there are tables, there can be serious problems. In order to make the tables legible to as wide a range as possible of ebook devices, the tables in this book have, for the most part, been either converted to ordinary text or reformatted, and are therefore different in most cases from the tables in the print editions of this book, though the content is unchanged. If some readers still have problems reading the tables, please accept my apology. We have done our best in difficult circumstances.
The second edition of the printed version of the book employs a different (san serif) type face when Davey is talking, to help the reader keep track of who is talking at any given time. This font has been embedded in the ebook file. Readers wishing to maintain this effect should choose as their default font a serif font, which all other text will display in, to help accentuate the difference in appearance of the font used when Davey is speaking.
I hope that those readers with a colour display will appreciate the colour in some of the illustrations. This is a feature not available to those reading the second print edition.
Finally, my thanks to Michelle Demers, whose book on publishing has been a very useful guide, and who has done a lot of the work involved in converting the printed version of this book to the ebook format.
PART 1
THE DIALOGUE BEGINS
This section is introductory in nature. It describes the circumstances of Peter’s first encounter with Davey, as well as the challenges that each faced in achieving a mutual understanding.
DIALOGUE 1
The Arrival of the Voice
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert this or that problem will never be solved by science.
CHARLES DARWIN, Introduction, The Descent of Man, 1871
– Do you really want me to start out with a discussion of creation myths?
It was the beginning of our first session, only a week after my first encounter with