Learn; Unlearn; Relearn.

    A very respected teacher in my college says- "everything in life comes in threes. The process of learning also involves three stages- learn, unlearn and relearn". Further, "whatever we are learning may be wrong, but to put forth a better theory one day, you must first know what's wrong!" 

   These words set my mill of thoughts,  churning..........

   Synapse- it's an anatomical gap between 2 neurons that allows "contiguity" of nerve impulses. It's also the form of storage of our memory. 

   So when we learn something- a new synapse is formed. And applying the same idea to unlearning, that synapse must be disappearing so that we 'forget' that. 

   But in case of "unlearning", we must be making another synapse which must be allowing us to remember that what I have learnt is wrong. And further, which would allow us to compare the differences between new theory and old theory. Further if an emotion has been attached to this process, the memory is stronger in our minds. 

   Then finally comes "relearning". Where a new approach to the same basic concept, incorporating new ideas and understandings enables us to overcome the shortcomings in the old theory. This is how we progress. This is how mankind has set on a journey to decipher everything- from an electron to the cosmos. 

    For example, let's look back to this history of- structure of an atom. 

    We began with saying that atom is the smallest, indivisible part of a substance. Then came plum pudding model. But it couldn't explain alpha particle scattering experiment. Then came planetary model but it couldn't why electron stays in its path and not collide into the nucleus. Then quantum theory. And so on.

   While watching a show about humanity's existence and our creator, Renowed physicist Stephen Hawking talked about "the best-fit theory". 

    He gave an example-

A man opens a room and finds a table in the centre of the room. There is nothing and no one else in the room. He goes out. And comes again after 10 minutes. He finds the table in that same place where he had last seen. The man thinks that the table was at the same place all the 10 minutes that he wasn't there. This is the best-fit theory. He simply uses his logic.  But...maybe the table flew out of the window, encircled the planet and came back just before the man entered again! Or maybe- some other person entered the room after he left, shifted the table beside a wall, left, third person entered and brought the table to the same position. The original man still thinks the table didn't move. 

   This is how we see. Actually, what we see is not reality. It's a virtual world that we are seeing. We keep using this 'best-fit' model and try to understand things.

   Since this blog has been uploaded from my site, you think that I have written this blog. This is what fits-best according to you. But who knows if someone hacked my account and posted this on my behalf! The possibilities are endless...can you think of other such theories?