In the tranquility of knowing myself among some cool minds,
Science originates in the seeing beyond appearances.
I would testify that appearance is the consensus, the consensus is an agreement about appearances, to the end of regulating them, shaping them along the lines of the majority of instincts.
Science is the magma rumbling below the surface produced by the tectonic suffering of different fundamental truths colliding. When a scientific vision penetrates the surface and shares the world of appearances, it does so with a thundering violence, eclipsing in smoke whatever it doesnt subsume or annihilate. The consensus is that something just happened because some weirdo did some science. The path between the idea and the experience of its implementation is fraught with consensus and counter consensus. But the idea is never really fully conceded to; science is never finished. There is only one science, the one that started for real with Archimedes. The physical apprehension of proportional physical relation, the proof of causation.
When the smoke clears long after the event and the dead cities are excavated, the knowledge of the power that caused all this becomes embedded in the world in a small group of committed investigators. These would be in government or corporate service most of the time yet qua their scientific powers always have some autonomy. Secret services have as their primary objective to keep a check on whatever science is out there, and take stakes in the powers that are emitted by it, indifferent to human value judgments. It is the science that is the value and Intelligence is the quest of being worthy of whatever powers the scientific genius unleashes on the consensus-seeking world of appearances.
Finally, after the powers have been put into play between the adequate political powers, the weird phenomena that took such great tolls in the past are explained through slow dissemination of the science into scientific magazines, newspapers, and school books. This process then slowly informs and empowers a population into a consensus about the usefulness and decency of the powers. But very few people will ever understand the general theory of Relativity, and those that come close to understanding it tend to be heavily entrenched in disagreements. As can be enjoyed right here on ilp. Which isnt as bad as I say.
I was afraid I was going to get more condescending sloppiness. But there are some real gentlemen here.