Science in Society – Thang Nguyen 555

08/19/2012

Enduring trends

Technologists are enthusiasts. Their progress are documented in hockey-stick trends. Meanwhile we as ordinary human are still reacting out of fear as if we were still living in caves. The reptilian brain vs rapid rise of chip speed, guns vs germs, technology vs anthropology! As early as 1950’s, graduates would hear something like: “boy, you get…

Start from the start

Science has just made a great leap. Congratulations. They have discovered the equivalent of DNA of the universe. Named it Higgs, after the scientist. This lifts the burden off our shoulders: we are not faceless random masses. If there are DNA’s, there are designs and destination (you might not like it if it’s not to your preferences).…

Start thinking

This is the last of the Trilogy: Start seeing, start hearing and start thinking. It’s the hardest, because the end product of thinking is acting. Acting means change. Change brings dissonance and discomfort. Our faculty is quite limited: we are conditioned to respond in Pavlovian way. Group think. Similar to Adam Smith’s unseen hand…