Food for Thought

[rrneck]

62. It's still the same problem.

Technology follows science as surely as night follows day. And we use technology to facilitate more science. You can't build precision insturments without engineering and the industrial processes that support it. And all that stuff has to be paid for. Just think about how much science and technology used in our daily lives began as a weapon of one sort or another. We have stolen most of the resources that have facilitated our technological and scientifec prowess.

It isn't just about science either, but the common denominator between science, technology, emotion, and religion: people. We developed marvelous mythologies and used them to burn each other alive. We developed marvelous technologies and did the same thing.

The practice of science, like the practice of faith, is a discipline that requires us to set aside ego in the exploration of the unknown. It's what we do and we are no more able to avoid one than the other.

A new energy source of some sort will surely be found. The question is will it be an economically viable source able to fuel the lifestyle we currently enjoy before we start burning each other alive for the luxury of satellite enabled Tweets and reality tevevision.

People were able to treat each other fairly and compassionately before the development of clean linen and asphalt shingles and I expect us to have to learn to do so again because the wealth that supports the science is going to disappear.

I have no idea what will be left. Maybe we'll have iPads on saddle horns. But the practice of science won't make us any more humane than the practice of religion in the face of our ability to exploit the wealth of resources around us. We just weren't designed to manage abundance, and both science and religion facilitate its exploitation.