COMMUNICATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The Mobile Information Society

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON 21ST-CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS

Conference, May 24-25, 2002
Hungarian Academy of Sciences


János Laki -- Gábor Palló:

Scientific Change and Mobile Communication

Abstract


Science in the post-second World War period seems to have become increasingly fragmented. In view of this phenomenon, some recent theories have provided new arguments for a relativist philosophy of science. The argumentation encompassed the empirical basis, the theories, as well as the institutional system of the natural sciences. Providing an analysis of Big Science, the planned talk however concludes that modern communication technology, in particular the Internet, reunites the fragments. In addition, this technology presents an instrument also for the various, divergent, small science projects. They can use a common language when processing the experimental data stored in a common format on the Internet. In this way modern communication technology may create a new situation for the practice of science, a situation in which some elements of the relativist argumentation cannot be maintained.