Science and Technology
Science is not a Prophet of Doom
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 19, 2021
Today, we are recipients of the benefits of several such technological wonders as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), x-ray, computerized tomography (CT) scan, the positron emission tomography (PET), and electroencephalography (EEG). We have the Internet, Wi-fi, cell phones, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger that reduced the time and improve the quality of interaction as well as provide almost free education on any fields of endeavor and hands-on training on any particular skills and expertise one wants to specialize. Indeed, science is not a prophet of doom. It can realize its dreams and visions, even against all odds. It can perform magic and miracles.
The problems of human-rights violations, terrorism, injustice, greed and corruption are a moral issue, which scientists relegate their resolution to Governments and the Churches. Even then, this did not stop the late Physicist Stephen Hawking to seriously forewarn us that, unless we are able to address these moral issues, “we are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity.”
Quantum physicist David Bohm and Mark Edwards already made a troubling observation that our condition today can only go from bad to worse for we have not truly diagnosed the root cause of our sufferings.
Undoubtedly, the prevailing paradigm (laissez-faire capitalism) as well as its attendant political system (democracy, dictatorship, totalitarianism) have only deeply entrenched and secured the power and wealth of the few elites (1%) at the expense the vast majority of the populace (99%).
They not only perpetuate and aggravate the problems. They are also the cause of the many problems we are confronting today.
Hundreds and thousands of years have already passed and we keep on implementing these paradigms, deluding ourselves into thinking that they are the only way to improve our well-being and secure our future. Albert Einstein rightly said that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.”
We have to see beyond the shades of our past and present. We need to have new paradigms, rather than insisting to use old-aged ones that have long been worn out by the passage of time.
Science does not claim to solve all the problems we face today. But it’s doing its part to secure our future, so we can fulfill the words written in the Book of Genesis (1:28): “Go forth, be fruitful, and multiply.”
There are several habitable planets out there that have already been identified by NASA. Scientists are now building space ships that can transport us to spaces beyond our Solar System.
They are now building the necessary infrastructures that can be assembled on other planets to serve as our homes and bunkers.
They are now reengineering us humans, animals, plants, crops so we can withstand extreme conditions. Through genetic engineering we can now produce cells that can be transported and nurtured to begin another round of life and civilization out there in space. They can even resurrect extinct species.
What happens when we populate other planets is another avenue to explore. Maybe, people will bring along with them their religion and politics to repeat the same problems we created here on Earth.
This will give us another reason to colonize other planets until the time we begin to realize that we all came from the same origin, that we are all brothers and sisters of the same cosmic parentage, that our survival and future depends on cooperation, rather than competition.
Yes, Sylvia, my dear friend, astrophysics is fascinating "besides stretching the mind with the metaphor of ceaseless expansion..."
But let’s not allow humanity to blow up every living species for the sake of our children and grandchildren. This much we owe to our next generations, i.e., to prepare and secure their future too.