TRIPLE STREAM
ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Today mankind is suffering from too much rather than
too little faith and it is doubt rather than faith that must be preached.
Modern science begins with great acts of doubt. The motto of the Royal Society
of Science in England is ‘NULLIUS IN VERBA’ (We take no body’s word for it).
Copernicus doubted that the sun went round the earth. Galileo doubted that
heavy bodies fall faster than light bodies. Harvey doubted that the blood
flowed into the tissues through the veins. They had each a theory to replace
the old one. But as time elapsed these new theories too were found wanting.
They are not accepted in toto. The new theory suggests that planets do not go
round the sun in circles as Copernicus thought. Gravitation is a more complex
affair than Galileo or even Newton believed. However unless we doubt and
question, discoveries cannot be made. Einstein rightly said: “The important
thing is, Don’t stop questioning”.
As Robert Browning, the poet said “Who knows most, doubts
most”. Gautam Buddha said “Don’t accept any thing blindly because some great
man has said it, or because it is found in a book or because the majority of
people believe it.” Lord Krishna told Arjuna in Bhagavadgita not to believe
blindly what he said but “to reflect upon it, use his discretion and make his
choice”. This is the scientific attitude. Sir James Jeans saw science like a
thought rather than like a machine. It is a temper of mind.
“Science is the continuous discovery of its own mistakes” as
Gerald Gould has said. The 18th century
complacently believed that it had at last got rid of nonsense. Whitefield
wondered. “What seeming nonsense of today may not tomorrow be demonstrated
truth”. Scientists set up a hypothesis and through experiment endeavour to
justify it. They formulate their principles according to a system of trial and
error. Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the electric bulb, failed 900 times
by making mistakes but he said, “I find out what is true and what is false. I
find satisfaction of eliminating 900 errors and coming upon the truth”.
Alexander Graham Bell was trying to invent a hearing aid for
his wife who was partially deaf. He made mistakes and failed in inventing the
hearing aid but in the process discovered the principles of the telephone. We
cannot call it a fluke. Good luck is when the opportunity meets human effort
which is earnest. Henry Ford who made the first car made the mistake of not
putting the reverse gear! Columbus who tried to discover India, made the
fortunate mistake of discovering America. It is scientific truth that the way
to success is paved with mistakes.
It is sadly confessed by students of literature that all the
romance of life seems to be the monopoly of the scientists. The adage “truth is
stranger than fiction” is true though trite. Romance is no longer the property
of the poets, novelists and story-tellers. As Bernard Shaw pointed out “Today
scientists expect us to believe things far more fantastic than any poets ever
expected us to believe and we believe them”. The popular books in astronomy and
bio-chemistry are the most imaginative and exciting works of literature. Most
things mentioned in fiction like ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ and ‘The Time
Machine’ of H. G. Walls are no longer wonders.
Based on technological breakthroughs the new millennium will
unveil tremendous advances – Inter-planetary travel, double-decker aero-planes,
flying cars and motor cycles, development of antimatter, conversion of sea
water as fuel, almond size computers, Three-in-one (Computer, T.V. and Phone),
revolutionary developments in robot technology, robots which replace servant
maids and clerks and the possibility of a human being living for 140 years by
means of molecular medicine and genome which help him to retain youth and
energy. Cloning will be in wide use.
Of course it is doubtful whether a human being will have
peace and happiness! “Modern science can grasp the tune but not the player”, as
a philosopher scientist has remarked.
Probability and randomness play a vital role in scientific
investigation. In his stimulating book ‘MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE’ Sir James Jeans
says “Every conclusion is frankly speculative and uncertain. We are not in
contact with the ultimate reality”. In his treatise: ‘POSSIBLE WORLDS’ J. B. S.
Haldane avers “Every statement of a modern physicist is false. Many of our most
cherished scientific theories contain so much falsehood as to deserve the title
of myths”. Today fundamental science is creating a doubt whether it is a
reliable process of cognition. It is plagued with several short-comings –
indeterminism, irreversibility, uncertainty, non-linearities etc. Prof. Planck
in his book ‘WHERE IS SCIENCE GOING’ makes the significant remark: “Science
cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature and that is because in the last
analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery we
are trying to solve. The most penetrating eye cannot see itself any more than a
working instrument can work upon itself”.
The modern researchers, on the basis of Sir J. J. Thomson,
Sir Rutherford and Prof. Maxwell
have stated with authority that matter and energy are but two different forms
and shapes of one and the same thing and under certain conditions they are
convertible. In the year 1905 Prof. Einstein propounded his Theory of
Relativity. It explained every thing which Newton’s Gravitation laws did not
explain. He went to the extent of saying that if there was a creator of this
universe, he must have been a mathematician. It was found that the universe was
spherical in shape with four dimensions – length, breadth, height and time. He
even discovered the relationship between time and space. Yet some of his
findings were doubted, debated and challenged for some time.
Mr. Stephen Hawking the author of the best selling book ‘A
Brief History of Time’ said, “In contrast with our intellect, computers double
their performance every eighteen months. So the danger is real that they could
develop intelligence and take over the world. We must develop our technologies
as quickly as possible to make possible a direct connection between brain and
computer so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence instead of
opposing it”.
Kavin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics in the University of
Reading, says that a day will come very soon when man can communicate with his
mind and get things done. He is a cybong – half human, half robot. Difference
between man and robot is reducing.
Indeed, Technology is growing into Frankenstein dimensions.
As Bernard Shaw comments “If religion is an old superstition, science is a new
superstition.”
Instead of being used for alleviation of poverty of the downtrodden, technology is being used by the vested interests to exploit and further impoverish the poor. Technology is of forbidding cost. It is harmful to the environment. It is a health hazard to the population. The worst thing is, It has become the hireling of politics and is destroying life and property by producing nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. Stephen Hawking asked in one of his lectures: “Is the end in sight for theoretical physics?” What he meant probably is that science will come to an end as a natural consequence of the efforts of scientists themselves engaged in solving the intractable problems lying behind the natural phenomena observed in the universe.