Is Scientific Advancement a Boon or Bane free essay sample

These are of fundamental nature and of far reaching consequences, so much so that the world would get further transformed unrecognizably. Science touches all of us and our life at every step, as a big boon and blessing. It has helped us to conquer space and time. The world has now become a global village, thanks to very fast and reliable means of travel and communication. Science has also helped man to conquer the moon and to explore the outer space. Many a fatal disease is now checked and eradicated. For example, small pox is now a disease of the history only. The great and significant researches in the fields, of agriculture, irrigation, water-management etc. , have helped in developing new variety of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and effective methods of water conservation. These benefits and facilities were not available to our forefathers. The use of computers and super computers has further revolutionised our life and work with the dawn of scientific era, the barriers of the nations are crumbling fast and the international living and interaction are very much in sight. Nations and countries have come closer and isolation has been eliminated. A new composite culture marked with greater tolerance and understanding, and secularism is now assured. In a sense, science has unified the world and reduced differences in outlook and thinking. By removing many superstitions and blind beliefs, modern science has inculcated scientific temper and spirit in man to gr6at extent. Because of science and technology there has been tremendous progress in the fields of industry, commerce and human resources development as well. Consequently, there is a new world economic order in sight and the gap between the developed and developing countries are being reduced. The new economic order ensures a great industrial and corporate cooperation, globalization, expansion and liberalization among the nations. The quality of life and standard of living, in various underdeveloped and developing counties, have improved and the countries are likely to be upgraded further. The contribution of science in the betterment of human life has been great and significant and further expectations from it are no less significant or great. The boons and blessings of science assure us further strengthening of human equality, fraternity and liberty. Man feels more safe, secure, comfortable and important. Today than ever before, because of scientific development and advancement. The day is not far off when we shall have colonies on the moon and the planets. Science has achieved much, and promises to achieve still more and more in the years to come. Science has tamed forces of nature, conquered space and time, eradicated may fatal diseases, given us food, clothing etc. , and enough to spare. Now there are no more famines, epidemics and pestilences. Science has even pushed further the threats of death and increased the average longevity of man. But science has been a mixed blessing. It has been a boon and blessing in certain fields; it has also proved a curse and bane in many others. It has given us many dangerous and destructive weapons like atom and hydrogen bombs and missiles. During the Second World War itself 300,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the USA dropped atom bombs there in 1945. The biological and chemical weapons are still more destructive. The bombs and other means of mass destruction now produced are far more lethal and powerful than used in 1945. The biological and chemical weapons are still more dangerous and destructive. They have the added advantage, as the source of attack can remain hidden and unidentified to a great extent. These weapons can be used to cause global havoc and destruction without any open declaration of war. Then there are well-organised terrorist groups spread all over the world. They use these weapons in their desperation and use unprecedented deaths and ruination. Shakespeare has said that there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. There have been many scientific researches and discoveries which have unfortunately been hijacked to harmful destructive paths. It is reported that about half a million scientists are now employed on weapon research throughout the world. The huge amount of money spent on these dangerous researches fan exceeds the amount of money being spent on developing technologies for new energy resources, improving human health, raising agricultural productivity, controlling pollution etc. At the end of the last world war, many of the scientists were taken away by the victorious countries for developing their own biological and chemical war weapons. It is alleged that the outbreak of plague in India in 1994 was genetically engineered. Obviously, science is being used so much for destructive purposes and so little for meeting real needs of humanity. This turns science into a bane. It is man who is ultimately responsible for turning science into a curse instead a blessing. By itself science can be said to be a blessing, boon or bonanza; the bane and cures are brought about by our wrong orientation and priorities. The misuse of science has ushered in our life many undesirable elements. There has been erosion in man’s faith in Sod and religion. Morality and ethics have been marginalized and materialism has increased unprecedented. Rapid, unplanned and indiscriminate industrialization has resulted in pollution on a vast scale. No doubt, science and technology has taken giant strides in recent times, but it has dehumanized human life in the same proportion. Human values have been pushed in the background and man has become more selfish, cruel, sensual, violent and destructive. There is no more simple living and high thinking. But let us hope that ultimately sanity prevails and science is used more and more for the benefit of mankind. It depends solely upon man himself how he uses science and its discoveries and researches. Science as knowledge and power is neither savior nor destroyer. Every coin has two phases. The same science which has been of such great assistance to mankind has another face. Science which has bestowed us with development, progress, expansion and growth has also brandished us with hostilities, destruction, violence, ruin, devastation, annihilation bloodshed, carnage and obliteration. Gone are the days when peace and tranquility used to prevail throughout the world. Today a gun booms in one corner of the world or another everyday. Wars are fought between countries for years and years together at a stretch. Families are torn apart and friends are lost forever, never to be reunited. By giving birth to weaponry, Warcraft and armaments it can be indisputably said that science is the root of battles, armed conflicts and international disputes. Thanks to science we are plunging headlong into an era of nuclear wars. Due to the advent of science the longevity of life has greatly increased. But, this is paving the way for over-population and population explosion. This has resulted in mass deficiency of land. Today, due to this we are even auctioning of land on the moon! Thus, I have illustrated some of sciences advantages and disadvantages. But can we really blame science when it comes to the disadvantages? I believe that the culpability lies with those who misuse science. The radar of blameworthiness, in my opinion, should never fall on science. Hence I can state indubitably that science is a great boon for humankind, but when it is misused it can prove to be the most worst of banes. The exploitation of science can result in several disastrous consequences like nuclear wars, catastrophic pollution and ruinous bloodshed. It is only due to science that we stand where we are today. Due to the advent of science the longevity of life has greatly increased. But, this is paving the way for over-population and population explosion. This has resulted in mass deficiency of land. Today, due to this we are even auctioning of land on the moon! Machine guns, shells, submarines, the atom and hydrogen bombs can destroy the world in the twinkling of an eye. Aero-planes in war act as engines of mass destruction. Not only in times of war but in times of peace also man lives in the midst of disease. Though cures are being invented diseases are multiplying too. If the former is in arithmetic progression, the latter is in geometric progression. That is why peace lovers blame science as a curse. The pursuit of knowledge carried on by scientists for the past several centuries has produced results over which opinion is sharply divided. Science, originally intended to conquer and harness the forces of nature for the good of man, is looked upon by some as the chief cause of the suffering of humanity today. On’the other hand, there are a good many people who consider science to be the harbinger of all progress, prosperity and comfort. The contro ¬versy has been raging for a long time, though science goes on taking long strides . obviously regardless of the conflicting opinions pro ¬nounced on its achievements. Leaders of thought, be they scientists or not, however, occasi ¬onally pause and ponder whether science is going the right way and really promoting human welfare. A dispassionate and comprehen ¬sive survey of the fruits of scientific advance in the various spheres of human life provides sufficient ground to be sceptical about the claim that science is an unqualified and unmixed blessing to huma ¬nity. They have reason to conclude that all is not well with science and its application. Pure science is a relentless search for truth, for the discovery of the laws of nature. As such, no fault finding is possible with pure scientific research. The position, however, changes materially in regard to the application of scientific research in the field of practi ¬cal activity. Science is like a sharp sword which can be used for either defending yourself against the enemy or cutting your own throat. What the pure scientist gives to his fellow-beings may thus be turned to their advantage, or exploited for subversive and des ¬tructive purposes. The application of science, therefore, depends upon the just or unjust aims man has in view, and the history of the world shows that the application of science has not always been governed by principles of justice and consideration of the generanl good of the people. The 19th century witnessed the invention of steam loco motives, oil engines and other automobile machinery. Consequently, heavy industries of iron, cloth, etc. , came to be set up. Production of these and other goods increased rapidly and their quality also improved^ greal deal. It was claimed that the burden of drudgery and physi ¬cal labour was taken off the shoulders of man and shifted to the machine. Apparently, the claim was correct, but the labour-saving devices of new machinery dealt a death-blow to cottage industry, re ¬sulting in large-scale unemployment. It also brought into being the tyranny of capital over labour. The rich industrial magnates ex ¬ploited the situation and utilised the inventions of science for fea ¬thering their own nests. A new form of slavery—the subjugation of the factory and mill-workers to the capitalist—raised its ugly head. The condition of workers in mills, coal pits and factories in Eng-land and other countries was pitiable beyond description. Even wo ¬men and very young children did not escape the new method of exploitation. Thus, what Was hailed as a great blessing eventually turned out to be a curse, particularly for the exploited labourers and frequent conflicts’ in the shape of strikes, lockouts between capital and labour became the order of the day. Labour-saving machinery was applied to the service of man, but the overall result of this application was perhaps more evil than good. There was discontent, friction, immeasurable wealth on the one hand, and abject poverty on the other—palatial residences of capitalists stood in sharp contrast to slums in every big industrial town. Not only that, every industrially advanced nation began to look for its raw materials in other countries and markets for its finished products. Thus, economic and industrial advantages become an additional motive for aggressive wars. The application of science in the social sphere also produced highly questionable results. The introduction of machinery gave a new tempo and speed to human life and activity. Material consi ¬derations seemed to prevail over other interests, the sanctity of joint family life was violated ; art and literature came under the spell of the mechanisation of human life. People came to have more medicines and better surgical aid, but that did not promote better standards of health. Outdoor life, love of natural surroun ¬dings came to be at a discount and life on the whole became highly artificial, mechanical and prosaic. Science has done the greatest disservice to mankind in the iield of armaments and destructive engines of war. The invention gunpowder was hailed as a great achievement but humanity should rue the day on which this invention took place. Steadily and relentlessly, gunpowder has been used for new weapons so that today artillery, gun-fire, shells and bombs have become a hellish terror to everybody. Curiously e,nough, some of the best scientific-brains have devoted themselves to the invention of increasingly improved weapons of death and destruction. First came simple aerial bombing—then the atom bomb, followed by the far more terrible hydrogen bomb. And now we know that scientists are experimenting with cobalt, neutron and nitrogen bombs—for out ¬matching the hydrogen bomb in their destructive power. That colossal sums of money and the best brains of humanity have been wasted on the production of instruments of war is indeed† a sad commentary on the application and use of science. Today, if an atomic war is unleashed, there is not the feast doubt that whole towns, countries and even continents will be -wiped off in the general holocaust. And as yet all attempts to ban the production to atomic weapons or, for that matter, the application of science to destructive purposes have so far proved abortive. There are some sceptical thinkers who would like to for go all that science has so far given and prefer, if possible, a revival of life as it was before the march of science changecd it. This reactionary policy is as suicidal as the unrestrained use of science. To ban science altogether is to miss the real point at issue, and, to put k bluntly, to turn one’s back upon all the progress that mankind has made, in spite of the abuse and cxploitation\of science. It should not require much argument to convince a person that science, if pursued and applied in the right manner, can prove a real blessing to humanity. Thus what man needs today is not a ban on science,,but ban on its misdirected use and application. Man’s existence on this globe is a continuous progress of adjustment and adaptation to his environments, which are not always favourable. .For instance, man has to battle with, and hold his own against, the elements of nature, such as air. wind and wea ¬ther, the high seas and the lofty mountains. The climate at places is either too hot, too cold, too dry or too wet; the soil, in some parts of the world fertile, in others hard and unproductive. Again, man contracts all manner of ailments infections and diseases. It is in all these and many more spheres that science comes to his rescue. With its help he can cross the unchartered seas, fly through air, travel in deserts, turn infertile wastelands and arid fields into green pastures, harness the course of angry rivers, provide dams and bridges over them and even produce artificial rain, if necessary. The science of medicine and surgery has alleviated human pain and suffering beyond measure and opened up new vistas of health and longevity of life. There is evidence to show what blessing the proper use of science can confer on man. It is equally true that there is plenty of misery, poverty, under-nourishment and suffering in the world. Many countries still retain a primitive way of life ; the standard of living of their people is indescribably low. A great many parts of the world still lie undeveloped, unaffected by the magical touch of science. There is, therefore, a lot to be done by scientists to im ¬prove the lot of mankind. The average man wants food, clothes, house, education for children, adequate medical help, and proper opportunities for self-development. He does not want long-range artillery, atom bombs . or shellers. He loves peace and smooth fruitful life in which every ¬body must have enough to satisfy his physical wants as well as find food for his mind and soul. Now, if science can answer these needs of mankind, it can certainly be a blessing. That Science can achieve this laudable purpose is not a vain dream, provided man’s conscience is awakened and the heart of the scientists and those who govern their activities is in the right place. Atomic energy, for instance, can perform as great constructive miracles as the havoc by its bombs. Let the scientists utilise it for peaceful pur ¬poses as vigorously as they applied it for destruction, and it will not be long before the world is turned into a veritable. paradise. At bottom, therefore, the problem of science is a moral problem. Man has to learn to be fair, accommodating and just. If this miracle takes place, science would cease to be the dreadful monster which it often has been in the past. Science offers knowledge based on experiment and observation, but technology is the total sum of the application of knowledge. This has made life easy and comfortable for the user. A country said to be a developed country when it has many technical advancements. A small country like japan has succeeded to acquire this prestige because of its advancements and applications of technology at a high level .