SPIE Conf. Proc. Vol.8121-58, August (2011) Appreciation of the nature of light demands enhancement over the prevailing scientific epistemology Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri a,b a Physics Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA b Femto Macro Continuum, 7 Fieldstone Drive, Storrs, CT 06268, USA ABSTRACT Based on attempts to resolve the problem of various self contradictory assumptions behind the prevailing belief on single photon interference, we have analyzed the process steps behind our experimental measurements and named the process as the Interaction Process Mapping Epistemology (IPM-E). This has helped us recognize that the quantum mechanical Measurement Problem has a much universal and deeper root in nature. Our scientific theorization process suffers from a Perpetual Information Challenge (PIC), which cannot be overcome by elegant and/or sophisticated mathematical theories alone. Iterative imaginative application of IPM-E needs to be used as a metaphorical analytical continuation to fill up the missing information gaps. IPM-E has also guided us to recognize the generic NIW-principle (Non-Interaction of Waves) in the linear domain, not explicitly recognized in current books and literature. Superposition effects become manifest through light-matter interactions. Detecting dipoles gets stimulated by multiple superposed beams; it sums the simultaneous multiple stimulations into a single resultant undulation, which then guides the resultant energy exchange. The consequent transformation in the detector corresponds to observed fringes. They neither represent interference of light; nor represent selective arrival or non-arrival of photons on the detector. Photons do not possess any force of mutual interaction to generate their redistribution. Implementation of IPM-E requires us to recognize our subjective interpretation propensity with which we are burdened due to our evolutionary successes. Keywords: Non-Interaction of Waves (NIW); Nature of light; What photons are; Interaction Process Mapping Epistemology (IPM-E); Measurable Data Modeling Epistemology (MDM-E); Epistemology for science; Limiting velocity of particles; Running time as an immeasurable physical parameter. 1. INTRODUCTION Let us start our journey by accepting that the concepts of the structure of photons and the interference of indivisible single photons are not yet resolved issues. Otherwise, our 4 th biannual conference would not have succeeded in attracting almost sixty presented papers. The author firmly believes that the purpose of our theories is to help us visualize the invisible interaction processes that give rise to the data. Just the various successes of modeling data are not going to lead us to fully understand the cosmic system. This particular article will not directly dwell upon the issues of photons in details, which can be found in other articles of this volume. But the fact that these issues appear to be unresolved in the minds of many people, has inspired the author to write this article that proposes the need for the development of a rational strategy on how to do scientific thinking. The reader will find that the proposed Interaction Process Mapping Epistemology (IPM-E) provides a referent platform for both making iterative improvements of our theories and for enhancing our technology innovation capabilities. However, sincere humility is called for on my part before writing about formulating a methodology of thinking, or epistemology, for doing science, since I have never been a student of either philosophy or the subject of logics! This is especially true when one reads some of the sayings of Newton, the father of Physics: “I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” But, with the statement, “If I have seen farther than other men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”,