Crossroads

This very thought-provking article was written by Lew Zi Qi. Lew is a 15 year old school student from Singapore.

“These new tools, provided by science and technology, are more than just tools – they’re instruments of social revolution, violent or peaceful. As the tools change, so too does the ability of society to organize itself.” - James Burke

I believe that Science is characterized primarily by three main aspects: its ability to empower us and give the gift of Life, its ability to destroy us on catastrophic levels never before matched in history and lastly, its ability to provide glimpses into deep and profound knowledge that can alter our views of ourselves and the world we live in.

If we trace our ancestry back far enough, we find that all of us ultimately descend from a small group of hunter-gatherers in the eastern part of Africa. We were plagued by diseases, preyed upon by predators, subjected to the whims of Nature. Surviving was a daily struggle. Yet in little less than a hundred thousand years – a mere bubble on the frothing river of evolution – we have grown to populate all the continents of the earth. We have effective cures for most diseases - what would be fatal a mere hundred years ago can be solved with a simple vaccination. Searching for food is as simple as a trip to the nearest supermarket – and no worries about becoming food ourselves as we do so. That we are able to propagate so successfully, that our daily lives are free from the primeval struggles of life and death is in no small part due to the benefits that Science provides. Indeed, most of us owe our very existence to advancement in Science: without technological advancement in agriculture, the Earth would have only been able to support paltry tens of thousands of humans. Given that there are now six billion of us, it would seem safe to venture that most of us would not be here today if not for Science.

But Science comes with a deadly caveat. For despite its ability to provide us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-seed transportation, Science carries with it the ability to destroy us all. And we are finding ever more efficient ways to destroy each other. Our biological weapons have evolved from the make-shift method of slinging diseased corpses over city walls to finely-honed, secretly-delivered laboratory germs able to cause mass pandemics. At a press of a button, the world’s leaders can destroy all life on the planet. From the cannons of Gettysburg to the nuclear bombs of the Cold War, the destructive abilities of our best weapons have grown over a billion times in a hundred years.

Our great industrial plants emit vast amounts of harmful gases daily, doing irreparable damage to our only home. Yet, we seem to lack the collective willpower to stop the slow rot. Is it only a matter of time before we are wiped out by our own achievements, going out either in the big bang of a nuclear holocaust or the small whimper of a slow global warming?

Will Science be our undoing, or will it be our liberator?

I believe that there are two possible paths humanity can take. We can continue to remain prisoners of our own inventions, or we do what we do best: we adapt and flourish.
The first path is a bleak one. On that path, a promising primate species rise on an insignificant planet in a solar system but eventually destroys itself. Such a possibility is not far fetched – throughout our brief history, we have shown tendency to think only of short term benefits. In modern times, we need to look no further than America’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol (without American support, its effectiveness is greatly reduced). Self-preservation is hardwired into our evolutionary instincts. We have to conquer our selfish desires for the benefit of the species. Male jumping spiders do it all the time when they sacrifice themselves as food for their female counterparts during mating. I do not believe that we cannot do the same.

If we are to take the path of survival, there has to be a shift of mindset, a social revolution of sorts. Somehow, we have to find the collective willpower to utilize Science for the greater good. If we manage to do so, it will be an unprecedented feat in our history – the entire human race working together for a single cause. Perhaps this sounds like imaginary fluff – the wishful thinking of a person living in a safe and prosperous country. As one China official put it, “You cannot talk to a person about saving the environment if he can’t even find food to put in his mouth.” Given more pressing issues around the globe, a coordinated attempt to turn Science into a tool for survival will not be an easy feat. But we have no choice: the rules of this planet are clear enough – we adapt or die. Rapid advancements in Science mean that now more than ever, our actions will have great ramifications for this planet. This has come to a point where we are at the crossroads of destiny, and what we do in the next few decades can affect the survival of our species.

I believe that the issue here is more than that of Science being a tool for survival or destruction. It would be myopic for this essay to focus solely on the physical benefits (or harms) of Science. This brings me to the third and last aspect of Science: its ability to alter our understanding of who we are.

There is a famous picture of Earth from space. Called Pale Blue Dot, it was captured by Voyager 1 from the edge of our solar system. In the centre of this picture is our home – a tiny blue speck 0.12 pixels across set against the vastness of space. From such a distance, it appears pathetically small, an indistinguishable mote of blue dust in the vast cosmic ocean highlighted by the falling of sunlight upon the lenses of Voyager 1. How many wars have been fought over a tiny fraction of this precious piece of real estate? It is the culmination of our cultures, our ideologies and religions, our joys and sorrows – it is the sum total of us. Pale Blue Dot challenges our perceptions of who we are. It puts to shame our tendency for anthropocentric notions. It tells us that however advanced our Science may be, we are only minor players on a small stage within the cosmic arena. And as astronomer Carl Sagan put it, “Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.”

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and don't necessarily reflect the views of Young Freethought or its editors.