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Using Generative Art to Convey Past and Future Climate Transitions

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Technoscientific approaches to deep time.

Marco Tamborini¹

¹Institut für Philosophie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Karolinenplatz 5, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany.

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

|February 20, 2020

Summary

Historical sciences, like paleontology, should be viewed as technoscientific disciplines. Examining the interplay of technology and theory reveals how scientists gain knowledge about deep time from incomplete fossil records.

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Area of Science:

* History and Philosophy of Science
* Paleontology and Paleobiology

Background:

* Traditional views of historical sciences often focus on classical experimental sciences.
* Understanding knowledge production in historical sciences requires examining their unique methodologies.

Purpose of the Study:

* To reframe historical sciences as technoscientific disciplines.
* To explore the role of technology in historical scientific knowledge production.
* To provide new insights into the preconditions and aims of historical scientific inquiry.

Main Methods:

* Analysis of 19th and 20th-century paleontological and paleobiological data practices.
* Investigation of technological devices used to process incomplete fossil records.
* Comparative analysis with other technoscientific disciplines (e.g., chemistry, synthetic biology).

Main Results:

* Paleontological data practices heavily rely on technological devices to handle imperfect fossil records.
* Technological devices are crucial for processing, correcting, and simulating paleontological data.
* The interpretation of fossil evidence and phenomena like mass extinctions is contingent on technology-theory interplay.

Conclusions:

* Historical sciences should be analyzed alongside other technoscientific fields.
* Viewing historical sciences as technoscientific offers a clearer understanding of their epistemology.
* This perspective enhances our comprehension of how historical scientists access knowledge about deep time.