Science and Morals

Two very disparate incidents made me think along the same lines. One was watching Jurassic Park and other was reading Surely You Are Joking Mr Feynman. Very specifically, listening to that little argument in Jurassic Park, where these guys voiced that they did not support a park of this sort. Playing with nature was a bad idea. One specific place the chaos theory expert says that you all were so obsesses with whether you could do this that you didn't ask whether you should. In the book, there is this chapter where Mr Feynman says that when they finally were able to come up with the workable design of the atomic bomb, all the physicists were euphoric except one who said that this is not good. The same bomb was dropped on Hiroshima which resulted in such catastrophic destruction.

All around us, we are obsessed with faster, bigger( or smaller), better. New inventions, cutting edge technology guarantee better lives. But at what costs? I certainly think that though our modern lives are so much more comfortable with the new gadgets and trim-trams thanks to science and its applications, our inventors should ask the pertinent question whether they should unleash new technologies, whether the current society deserves them. These comfort providers turn into mini-demons in no time what with the fertile yet immature mind of humans.

I am aware that every advancement adversely affects the nature some way or the other. Be it cheaper cars or mass produced PC and its peripherals leading to large tracts of e-waste dumps or mobile technology bringing a sharp decline in sparrows and other birds population. Dams which reduce soil fertility downstream. Deep tube-wells which make areas more prone to earthquake. Plastics, aerosols, air conditioners, dyes you name it.

It is not just science but almost every aspect of what we call knowledge, which has caused havoc. History, when twisted caused Babri Masjid demolition. Experimenting with society and economics caused so many lives ruined in USSR and other communist countries. Experiments with the market caused sub prime crisis which resulted in a dominoe-like global recession.

It's not that advancements and experiments are bad. No! not at all. All that is required is that people take responsibility and that they do not forget morals and ethics.