Triple Stream

ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYtc "ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY"

Today mankind is suffering from toomuch 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 18^th 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.