Thursday, April 6, 2017

Week 6: March 24: Chapetsr 14 and 15

Those of you still on schedule will have read Chapter 14, The Discovery of Ignorance, and Chapter 15, The Marriage of Science and Empire by now. If you haven't yet, no problem, you can read it when you're ready. Or not...

Chapter 14: The Discovery of Ignorance

1.     Pgs 249-250 - Harari writes, “Science needs more than just research to make progress. It depends on the mutual reinforcement of science, politics and economics.”
How has scientific development been influenced by politics and economics? How do you see that happening today?  Should this be happening?  Why or why not?

2.     pg 251 - “The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance.”
What did he mean by this? How does modern science’s view of ignorance compare to how the ancient traditions viewed ignorance?

3. Pg. 254 - “One of the things that has made it possible for modern social orders to hold together is the spread of an almost religious belief in technology and in the methods of scientific research, which have replaced to some extent the belief in absolute truths.”
Is human society exchanging religious belief in deities for religious belief in science and technology?  What does that mean? Is this good or bad?

4. pg. 256  - “Newton showed that the book of nature is written in the language of Mathematics.” 
What is your reaction to this?

5. Pg. 262 - “Today many Americans believe that the solution to terrorism is technological rather than political.”  E.g. Nanotechnology for bionic spy-flies; brain research for FMRI scanners to read people’s thoughts, etc.
a)    Do you agree that the solution to terrorism is technological; why/ why not?
b)    Should tax dollars be put toward these endeavours?  (If not, why not?  If so, what would you take the money from, in order to put it here?)
c)    If these were already developed, what would be your rules about how they should be used?  E.g., Ok to use, but only in foreign countries (e.g., spy flies)? Would you vote for or against brain scanners/thought readers being used at Pearson Airport, if it made it safer to fly?
d)    What are you thoughts on this, in the current climate of Russia-gate in the US, and the reports of TVs being used to spy on people?

7. “People still suffer from numerous degradations, humiliations and poverty-related illnesses, but in most countries nobody is starving to death. In fact, in many societies more people are in danger of dying from obesity than from starvation.”
Your thoughts? 

8. Pg. 267-271 - For science - death is a ‘technical problem’; people die technical failures - heart attack, cancer, infections. The leading project of the Scientific Revolution is to give humankind eternal life. A few serious scholars suggest that by 2050, some humans will become a-mortal.”
Do you think this immortality is a wise and moral use of resources today (why/why not)?
Can you imagine the world in 2050, from a science/technology perspective?  What does it look like?  Would you want to live in that world, as you imagine it?



9. Pg. 272 - 274  “Most scientific studies are funded because somebody believes they can help attain some political, economic or religious goal. To channel limited resources we must answer questions such a ‘what is more important?’ and ‘what is good?’  And these are not scientific questions….Science is unable to set its own priorities.
Where do morals, ethics, philosophy etc. come into play in the decisions re: what to fund and what not? If you were the King/Queen and could make the decisions/ set the priorities, how would you handle this?  What ideologies could help make those choices? Could you create one? 

Chapter 15: The Marriage of Science and Empire

1.      Harari argues that the “Scientific Revolution and Imperialism are inseparable.” What does he mean?  Some examples?

2.     Pg. 284 - “European imperialism was entirely unlike all other imperial projects in history.  Previous seekers of empire tended to assume that they already understood the world. Conquest merely utilized and spread their view of the world…In contrast, European imperialists set out to distant shores in the hope of obtaining new knowledge along with new territories.”

3. p 285 - The story - or legend - about an encounter between astronauts-in-training and a Native American has a pretty powerful ending. 
What were your thoughts/reactions to that?

4. Pg. 286 -  The Empty Maps.
Imagine living in a time when there was no certain map of the earth.  Columbus was so sure that the scriptures and his current understanding of the world were right that even when he literally landed on information to the contrary, he still refused to believe it.
Do you think it’s possible we have similar blind spots today, as individuals and/or as a nation? A world? What might they be? What stops us from seeing them?

5. P 290 -291 - The Chinese also sent out explorers (Zheng He) - in fact, with far more ships, and far larger crews. The difference?  He did not try to conquer or colonize the countries he visited.  “What made Europeans exceptions was not their outstanding technological edge - it was their unparalleled and insatiable ambition to explore and conquer. The Europeans were the oddity - “…to sail to distant and completely unknown lands full of alien cultures, take one step onto their beaches, and immediately declare, “I claim all these territories for my king!”
Why do you think the Chinese explorers had such a different mindset from the Europeans?  How might the world look today, if everyone had gone out with a similar viewpoint/mindset to the Chinese (for good, or for ill)?

6. Pg. 300 - 301
Knowledge really was power for the European conquerers - in what sense(s)? 

7. Pg. 301 
What was the “White Man’s Burden”?
8. Pg.  302 - 304 - “The place of racism in imperial ideology has now been replaced by ‘culturalism’…We no longer say, ‘It’s in their blood.’  We say, ‘It’s in their culture.’”
How do you see that playing out in the world today?  What’s the danger?

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