• Question: is science good

    Asked by anon-217594 to Harrison, Edoardo on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Edoardo Vescovi

      Edoardo Vescovi answered on 10 Jun 2019: last edited 10 Jun 2019 3:46 pm

      Morally, neither 100% good nor 100% bad.
      Science is done by humans and humans may well have good or bad intentions. Think of vaccines: they are inactive germs that make our bodies create protection against diseases. Millions of people are saved each year by an injection!
      Now think of the scientists studying radioactivity 100 years ago. Their result was used to build power plants to produce electricity for our homes, as well as nuclear bombs. What matters is how we use science.

    • Photo: Harrison Prosper

      Harrison Prosper answered on 10 Jun 2019: last edited 10 Jun 2019 10:21 pm

      Science, like everything else, we humans do is a double-edged sword. Take the invention of the printing press in the 1450s by Gutenberg. Without a doubt this was a momentous advance. It allowed Shakespeare to record his plays for us to read centuries later; it has allowed us to learn about Galileo’s discoveries from his notebooks, and it has allowed us to record the totality of human wisdom for all to read. But, the book has also given us horrendous ideas that have led to abominations such as the Holocaust. Likewise, science has eliminated horrible childhood diseases; it has given us enough understanding of the microscopic world to be able to create amazing things like smartphones; it has allowed us to understand that you and I are related through the glorious process of evolution; it will one day allow us to conquer all cancers and repair DNA before a child is born. But, science has also produced the hydrogen bomb and bio-weapons. One day, it may produce super-humans and thereby cause the most profound inequality we can imagine. It is up to your generation to decide whether the science you will develop is to be used for good or for ill.

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