Science to the Rescue
'It might be interesting to see some fiction that actually shows the more positive elements of GMOs for once.'
--Stu
A while ago, someone said to me that getting my genome sequenced was a waste of time and money-- in her words, 'humans survived all these years without knowing what genetic diseases we might have, so why do we need this now?'. I pointed out that humans had survived as a species for 200,000 years without the benefit of penicillin, flush toilets, radios, vaccinations, electric motors, or central heating, but few would argue that these innovations didn't improve the general quality of life.
Useful inventions seem like obviously good ideas in retrospect, but at the time innovation-- particularly on a large scale-- is often met with a degree of fear and skepticism. This isn't to say that skepticism is always unjustified. After all, many apparent scientific advances turned out to be frauds or incorrect conjectures, or were found to come at an unacceptably steep price.
At the same time, considering how much we as a society have gained from scientific inquiry (you're reading this blog on a computer, possibly thousands of miles from Scotland), it's surprising there isn't more optimistic sci-fi, where science saves the day. Part of this probably has to do with how the human brain functions-- we are neurobiologically predisposed to give more weight to scary events than to positive ones. However, there is a lot more to the story than mad science run amok.
It would be cool to see more stories where invention and investigation is the focus as the characters struggle to solve a problem or deal with the complex 'real world' consequences--both good and bad-- of their scientific discoveries.
--Stu
A while ago, someone said to me that getting my genome sequenced was a waste of time and money-- in her words, 'humans survived all these years without knowing what genetic diseases we might have, so why do we need this now?'. I pointed out that humans had survived as a species for 200,000 years without the benefit of penicillin, flush toilets, radios, vaccinations, electric motors, or central heating, but few would argue that these innovations didn't improve the general quality of life.
Useful inventions seem like obviously good ideas in retrospect, but at the time innovation-- particularly on a large scale-- is often met with a degree of fear and skepticism. This isn't to say that skepticism is always unjustified. After all, many apparent scientific advances turned out to be frauds or incorrect conjectures, or were found to come at an unacceptably steep price.
At the same time, considering how much we as a society have gained from scientific inquiry (you're reading this blog on a computer, possibly thousands of miles from Scotland), it's surprising there isn't more optimistic sci-fi, where science saves the day. Part of this probably has to do with how the human brain functions-- we are neurobiologically predisposed to give more weight to scary events than to positive ones. However, there is a lot more to the story than mad science run amok.
It would be cool to see more stories where invention and investigation is the focus as the characters struggle to solve a problem or deal with the complex 'real world' consequences--both good and bad-- of their scientific discoveries.
No comments have been added yet.
