Coming Into Focus
The Paradox of Detail
Those of us who have working vision know about the phenomenon of focus. Whether we have to wear corrective lenses for our eyes, or whether we have just used binoculars, a telescope, a magnifying glass, or a microscope, we know that small visual details can often be made clearer by adjusting the focus of a lens. Lines, edges, and intersection points look sharpest when they are in focus.
An analogous phenomenon occurs as we learn more details about an event, a situation, an activity, or an area of knowledge. What previously seemed “fuzzy” or vague about it to us seems to become clearer with the acquisition of more detail. But there is also a paradoxical effect in that distinctions that previously seemed clear to us can become less clear as we acquire more detail. What looked like a straight line may, upon sharper focus, look jagged, or look like a series of closely spaced dots, or even look fuzzy.
As the accumulated beliefs and knowledge shared by us humans has grown, these paradoxical effects of focus have happened to us collectively. Observations of our physical, chemical, and biological environments have revealed both more detail and more ambiguity. New telescopes have shown us many new galaxies, stars, planets, comets, asteroids, and moons; but they have also led scientists to question what previously seemed to be fairly…
