How strange that there should be life forms on Earth that aren’t conscious. How incredibly strange. It just strikes me as so incredibly odd that there should be life forms that spend their whole life not thinking, perceiving, seeing … just amazes me.

They’re just as complex, biochemically, as animals. They have strategies for reproducing themselves just like animals do, but they don’t rely on behaviour. Isn’t that amazing? They can move, just like animals, (think of Mimosa plants — read more on wikipedia).

I find it amazing. Makes me think about what it means to be alive. What counts as “alive”? I know we get taught that it’s those seven things, MRS GREN — movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition, but that’s because science education is horribly limited. Our education system doesn’t teach us how to think for ourselves. It makes me really angry, actually. Our education system is all about fulfilling the syllabus requirements. Literally checking off items on a list.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a pop at teachers. It’s teachers who have the difficult task of somehow inspiring kids whilst at the same time burdening them down with mindless, task-driven drivel (thanks, exam boards and the government!). But, I guess this is life, and this is the world we live in. Frustration can lead to freedom if you treat it right.

As I was saying … science education is horribly limited. It teaches nice little neat theories and nothing of the process of science, or how these nice little theories can suddenly be thrown out in a matter of a year or two. In the 20s everyone thought that physics had reached its limits and would soon be out of questions. Then along came quantum theory and everyone suddenly revised pretty much everything, and they’re still going.

And yet this isn’t even heard of in science education. There’s no philosophy or history of science — which surely must be vital in science education, otherwise there’s no context for present day theories nor is there any sense of connection between science and other disciplines — or the importance of science to everyday life. Without knowing the pitfalls and successes of science, all the struggles and failures, frauds and geniuses, science is just a dry, dull subject with no human interest.

Anyway. I’m going back to my sense of wonder at the world. Thanks for listening, if you got this far :)