NASA's mission to the moon and the use of nuclear power are all related to the same thing. Science convergence is where knowledge from multiple scientific disciplines is combined into new overarching knowledge that propels modern civilization. In the last 70 years, convergence has achieved more than science has done in the past.
The professors show in the article that convergence is not a new phenomenon.
The evolution of convergence was modeled by the researchers over the course of 10 years.
The researchers identified several stages in the evolution of science, each characterized by their own form of convergence. Polymathic convergence, which characterized early science up to the Renaissance period, was exemplified by famous polymaths. Knowledge integration was happening within the minds of singular scholars.
The authors call it convergence through divergence because theories developed within certain disciplines were turned into generalized templates with broader applications. The theory of evolution in biology was used by others to explain economic and social systems.
The era of multi-disciplinary team convergence began in the 20th century. Knowledge integration has taken place across teams of scientists with different expertise The Manhattan Project ushered humanity into the nuclear era.
"Now in the early 21st century, we have detected the emergence of yet another form of convergence, which we call polymathic team convergence," said the professor of computer science. In polymathic team convergence, knowledge integration takes place both within and across scholars. There are signs of polymathic team convergence in recent research.
The study's intermediate results were published in three journals. The recent article in American Scientist brings all these developments together.
There are other theories about the underlying mechanisms of science evolution.
The team of researchers believes that by the mid-21st century, convergence will evolve into what they call a cyborg team convergence, where polymathic scientists will work with artificial intelligence agents.
There are early signs of convergence in the article.
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