Knowledge
These were two major points from the reading by Vannevar Bush:
– science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endusers throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual
– the world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it
A pro of science is for sure that it has led to convenience and therefore knowledge.. But it has made everyone lazier in a sense:
I read that humans have become so conditioned by heating and cooling appliances that our bodies are unable to warm themselves up and cool themselves down effectively when necessary. Cavemen were indeed one of the healthiest classes of people because everything they did was naturally accomplished and nothing was industrialised.
But Cavemen are characterised as dumb because they didn’t have access to information; thus they were undeveloped like us. So we’re living larger and more productive lives which is ultimately a pro even if it is ruining our physicality.
I think knowledge is powerful and I think in the modern era it is incredibly accessible. I can respect the scholars of the century before who had to go to libraries and spend hours in books to garner information and improve their intelligence. I can do an hour or so of googling and I am expert on whatever issue or person or history I am exploring. And I’m all for strengthening the mind and making larger our access to information.
That is the whole aim of Wikileaks: to communicate information to citizens and hence empower them and not the government who conceal it for their own empowerment.
Orwell wrote: ‘Ignorance is Strength’, and this of course applies to idea that knowledge is powerful; because the governments of the world are monopolising important information to protect themselves and thereby they uphold an image of democracy to the citizens who are therefore manipulated by the government. Its incredible how powerful knowledge is; how it can create a disparity amongst classes and empower institutions.
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This relates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPlT2uKruwM