Tuesday, September 2

Science, Technology and Humanity- Part I

Science and technology are the two words that have revolutionized the world today. Their importance in the modern world has no greater indicator than the priority level of the nations coveting the "developed" tag attach to it; or perhaps, the charisma, with which those with the tag flaunt it and bully with it. That, however, is quite another story.

Though we hear these two terms from the layman and the scholar alike, it is seldom done carefully, and more often, interchangeably. So aren't they so? Before we even attempt to answer this question, let us look at these words with a purely literal perspective:

Science: (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge') This in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice

Technology:Human innovation in action that involves the generation of knowledge and processes to develop systems that solve problems and extend human capabilities

So here they stand crystal clear in their meanings.

However, this discussion is not intended to differentiate between science and technology. This discussion is about the perception of these terms by the common man and the confusion arising from the ignorance of the thin and exceedingly blurring line between the two. A point that should be made clear right now that even though this line may have blurred to give way to a gradual transition and now only a common region exists; still,their specific domains would still be, in all simplicity, theirs.

The trouble with perception of this is not a singular problem. We should realize that our the world is not homogeneous. But in an attempt to make it so, it has been unwittingly divided into two layers.

The first layer is of the abstracts who see the two domains from afar and think they are separate just like the way they always were. They do not know, nor care to find out what is going on in that situation on a microscopic level. Or rather, it can be assumed quite generally that they are afraid of approaching the domain they have considered sacred.

The second layer is of most of our myopic scholars who are right in the midst of the situation. They judge by what they see, and all they see is a blur.

So this is a problem we are facing. There are too few moderates who can stand at a few feet from the problem and see the big picture. What we have in the society seems like two bunch of Idiots who can't see a thing themselves, and yet despise each other.

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