19 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Two Visions of Science
g. When Shelley pictured science as a modern Prometheus who would wake the world to a wonderful dream of Godwin, he was alas too simple. But it is as pointless to read what has happened since as a nightmare. Dream or nightmare, we have to live our experience as it is, and we have to live it awake. We live in a world which is penetrated through and through by science, and which is both whole and real. We cannot turn it into a game simply by taking sides. And this make-believe game might cost...Shelly's view of science as a liberator versus HG Wells vision of science as an elitist endeavor, leaving the populace slaves to its whims.