“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”
Elwyn Brooks White
I feel a deep resonance with James Lovelock’s notion of Gaia, whilst on one level it is metaphorical in that it suggests the Earth’s biota is a sentient being, I believe it is helpful conceptually for us to consider it as such since it offers us the opportunity to identify with it and develop a better way of relating to it. However, I believe we also need to recognise the hard truth of the matter, the Earth does not care about us, we have evolved out of the complex history of life on Earth but we are not essential to it, in fact nothing much is, certainly nothing that is alive. Species have come and gone throughout the ages based on their ability to adapt to or survive in the every changing environment on Earth. We seem to believe that we are somehow special, more important than other creatures, perhaps we are but only in so much as we have developed the ability to cause so much harm. The point we must remember is that life on Earth will continue well after our extinction, yes it may look very different and there may be time needed to recover from the impact of humankind but it will indeed happen.
The real concern therefore is not for the good of the Earth, it is for the good of ourselves because we are the only ones who really have a vested interest. I believe we need to start to see this as an issue for Mankind’s survival and not about saving the planet, an irritant we may be but a long term threat we are not. If people truly believed that their children and grand children were going to suffer terribly they may actually be willing to re-examine what really matters to them and forgo their desire for more and settle for being more. I truly believe that we are living at a pivotal point in human history, they say that the night is darkest just before the dawn and looking at our world today with all it’s crisis’s including global terrorism, social unrest, corporate exploitation, political nepotism, environmental devastation and climate change to name but a few, things certainly look extremely dark to me. So what might the dawn bring? Perhaps a time where we meet in our sameness and not in our difference, a realisation that we all need to collaborate to avert the impending disaster and in so doing, we might actually learn that there is a different, more meaningful, morally richer way of relating to each other and the world around us. If, like Martin Luther King, I had a dream, this would be it.
Showing posts with label evolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evolution. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Friday, 13 November 2009
Science and the double edged sword of reason
“Science is the tool of the Western mind and with it more doors can be opened than with bare hands. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is.”
Carl Jung
I must confess to feeling extremely ambivalent about science; on one level it has contributed immensely to humankind, almost everything man made has been touched by the hand of science but on a more systemic level it has also been responsible for the global population explosion, over exploitation of natural resources and perhaps most damagingly a sense that we can control life itself. If we look at medical sciences alone, global life expectancy is two to three times longer thanks to the scientific revolution which at the level of the individual is seen as a good thing but without a compensatory reduction in birth rates, at a global level this is far from desirable.
At the root of the issue with modern science lies the reductionist principal which implies that everything can be understood by breaking it down into its constituent parts. This has led to a fragmentation and narrowing of the scientific field, into numerous focused disciplines each striving to make progress within its own field, without sufficient reference to the wider whole. An example of how this approach can be questioned would be the development of fertility treatments, on one level we are assisting an individual in propagating their genes but on another we are actually defeating the natural selection mechanisms which would seek to eliminate the underlying genetic defect from the human gene pool. The context in which we are developing this science is not only a world of over population but one in which there are numerous orphan children around the world who need loving parents and a home. This is just one example of where scientific reason can actually become irrational.
Science, in and of itself, is a search for understanding and as such is a very laudable pursuit. I suppose the true issues arise in the application of that knowledge. One cannot question a scientist for exploring things, assuming it is done ethically, but the scientist who develops its application must be held accountable. I believe it is should be incumbent upon every applied scientist to consider the wider implications and uses of their work.
Perhaps the most dangerous yet intangible aspect of science is the impact it has had on how we humans relate to and see ourselves in, the world at large. We have conquered every physical domain, we have the ability to control almost every disease and we have developed technologies which increasingly make us feel independent of the natural processes around us but truth be told, we have done nothing but delude ourselves, everything man has done scientifically in the last 300 years has set us apart from and made us feel immune to the natural order of things. Well, the time of reckoning is upon us and we are about to reap the whirlwind, the wholeness of nature is far greater than one species alone, particularly one who is arrogant enough to assume that it might actually control it. Everything we have done has had a consequence, it just that there has been a latency in response, but a response there will be and it will not be a positive one. Now more than ever we need scientists to turn their attention to the bigger picture, to collaborate across disciplines as never before and to convince the rest of us with a lesser understanding of such matters, of what we must do to minimise the human suffering that awaits us and to take the necessary steps to re-align ourselves with the natural order of things. We no longer need scientists to develop technologies and cures, we need their counsel and guidance as to how to live our lives, science was born out of philosophy and therein lies its true application and calling.
Carl Jung
I must confess to feeling extremely ambivalent about science; on one level it has contributed immensely to humankind, almost everything man made has been touched by the hand of science but on a more systemic level it has also been responsible for the global population explosion, over exploitation of natural resources and perhaps most damagingly a sense that we can control life itself. If we look at medical sciences alone, global life expectancy is two to three times longer thanks to the scientific revolution which at the level of the individual is seen as a good thing but without a compensatory reduction in birth rates, at a global level this is far from desirable.
At the root of the issue with modern science lies the reductionist principal which implies that everything can be understood by breaking it down into its constituent parts. This has led to a fragmentation and narrowing of the scientific field, into numerous focused disciplines each striving to make progress within its own field, without sufficient reference to the wider whole. An example of how this approach can be questioned would be the development of fertility treatments, on one level we are assisting an individual in propagating their genes but on another we are actually defeating the natural selection mechanisms which would seek to eliminate the underlying genetic defect from the human gene pool. The context in which we are developing this science is not only a world of over population but one in which there are numerous orphan children around the world who need loving parents and a home. This is just one example of where scientific reason can actually become irrational.
Science, in and of itself, is a search for understanding and as such is a very laudable pursuit. I suppose the true issues arise in the application of that knowledge. One cannot question a scientist for exploring things, assuming it is done ethically, but the scientist who develops its application must be held accountable. I believe it is should be incumbent upon every applied scientist to consider the wider implications and uses of their work.
Perhaps the most dangerous yet intangible aspect of science is the impact it has had on how we humans relate to and see ourselves in, the world at large. We have conquered every physical domain, we have the ability to control almost every disease and we have developed technologies which increasingly make us feel independent of the natural processes around us but truth be told, we have done nothing but delude ourselves, everything man has done scientifically in the last 300 years has set us apart from and made us feel immune to the natural order of things. Well, the time of reckoning is upon us and we are about to reap the whirlwind, the wholeness of nature is far greater than one species alone, particularly one who is arrogant enough to assume that it might actually control it. Everything we have done has had a consequence, it just that there has been a latency in response, but a response there will be and it will not be a positive one. Now more than ever we need scientists to turn their attention to the bigger picture, to collaborate across disciplines as never before and to convince the rest of us with a lesser understanding of such matters, of what we must do to minimise the human suffering that awaits us and to take the necessary steps to re-align ourselves with the natural order of things. We no longer need scientists to develop technologies and cures, we need their counsel and guidance as to how to live our lives, science was born out of philosophy and therein lies its true application and calling.
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