As man descended from the trees and began the journey into the future science was born from the first step upon the ground. The daughter of necessity, science was the truth by which we fed. No only did our inept knowledge of science sustain our bodies helping our physicals selves survive and evolve but it nurtured our minds leading us down the path towards humanity. Early man with their herbs, mushrooms and one can imagine some humorous trial and error lead future generations of man into what would become the basis by which every moment of our existence has been built on to this day.
Throughout the ages science, although not always named so, was foundation by which human life survived. Unfortunately,science became superstition and the less evolved leaf on the tree of humanity saw its' mystery as magic and began to persecute early practitioners of what would become know as the dark arts. The brightest minds of the time risked death to advance their knowledge of the laws of physics, the heavens and medicine.In the 1600's Galileo Galilei was actually convicted of heresy for proclaiming that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Our next moment of idiocy would come when primitive medicinal practices were declared to be witchcraft and therefore unholy which led to an untold number of murders. The only culture that not only survived these brief moments of extreme philosophical or scientific bias was China who flourished while continually advanced their understanding of science. The understanding and advancement of science in China actually dates back two thousand years and some ancient practices such as acupuncture are still preformed today all over the world.
It was not until fairly recently that mankind truly was free to delve into all aspects of known sciences. Science was no longer the daughter of necessity. Brilliant minds such as Jules Verne, James Fenimore Cooper, Alexandre Dumas as well as a few slightly disturbed ones began to dream of what could be. Far off worlds filled with fantastic imaginings. They dreamed of leaving earth just as the first humans left the trees. Traveling through wormholes and the possibility of alien intelligence adrift on earth like planets even other dimensions. These dreams commonly called science-fiction novels soon replaced necessity. Children that read these imaginings turned into adults who endeavored to turn science-fiction into science fact. We as a species reached the pinnacle of our existence. Scientific achievements came as fast as the speed of light. Of course their were more failures than successes thank goodness that passion fueled their drive to try and try and then try again. One hundred and twenty-five years ago the radio was only a dream today we have landed a satellite on a comet, there are plans to colonize Mars and cars that drive themselves. One can't speak of such success with mentioning the tragic successes that usually were born of war such as the atomic bomb which ushered in its' own era of death and destruction or the improvements in weaponry all of which remind us we are not as advance or intelligent as we could be. We can only hope future scientists realize that a scientific achievement can also occur within the mind not just the world.
I look at all the techno-junkies glued to their smart phones watching videos of cats and singing two year olds and I can't help but think about the 1969. The world glued to televisions, that generations the cutting edge technology, watching a rocket take off, fly for three days, finally coming to rest the one celestial body that every man woman and child that ever live gazed upon with wonder and awe and we did it with less than eight percent% of the computing power that we hold in our hands and watch you-tube videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Edit your Comment