I'd like to combine with this an old post (Isaac Asimov write a lot on this too)t, and ask, quite seriously, if we have made serious progress yet. All comments invited.
Word of Warning from Forty Years Ago by Jacob Bronowski in "Ascent of Man"
"Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures. You cannot possibly maintain that informed integrity if you let other people run the world for you while you yourself continue to live out of a ragbag of morals that come from past beliefs. This is really crucial today. You can see it is pointless to advise people to learn differential equations, or do a course in electronics or computer programming. And yet, fifty years from now, if an understanding of man's origins, his evolution, his history, his progress, is not the commonplace of the schoolbooks, we shall not exist. The commonplace of the schoolbooks of tomorrow is the adventure of today, and that is what we are engaged in."
That was in 1973. It is not 2023, meaning that we have but ten years left to make this vision a reality or we are all in peril. I think Bronowski was pessimistic in his prophecy, but there must be some time period in which it is true. We may not have but a decade, but certainly only decades before it will be true. which means tht we must start now if there is to be any realistic hope. Less than half of Americans accept Darwinian evolution. Many don't trust scientific and technological progress even though they themselves benefit from it.
That was in 1973. It is not 2023, meaning that we have but ten years left to make this vision a reality or we are all in peril. I think Bronowski was pessimistic in his prophecy, but there must be some time period in which it is true. We may not have but a decade, but certainly only decades before it will be true. which means tht we must start now if there is to be any realistic hope. Less than half of Americans accept Darwinian evolution. Many don't trust scientific and technological progress even though they themselves benefit from it.
