Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
The plus side has some heavyweight support in its favour. For exam-
ple, Christian de Duve, a 1974 Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medi-
cine, writes
Irrespective of its value as a source of new, beneficial technologies,
basic research has proved an inestimable generator of knowledge
and understanding. It has, largely in the space of a single cen-
tury, elucidated the nature of matter, established the composition
and history of the universe, unravelled the most intimate biological
mechanisms, uncovered the origin and evolution of life on Earth,
traced the advent of humankind, finally to approach the function-
ing of its own motor, the human brain. [8]
Likewise, Edward O. Wilson, an Emeritus Professor of Biology at Har-
vard University, wrote
A great deal of serious thinking is needed to navigate the decades
immediately ahead.... Only unified learning, universally shared,
makes accurate foresight and wise choice possible....wearelearn-
ing the fundamental principle that ethics is everything.
Fortunately, the exponential growth of knowledge is several times
larger than the exponential growth in the world economy that com-
bines the effects of population gains and increases in individual
economic productivity. Within reach is the capability to design the
future instead of trying to predict it or lurching toward a less-than-
optimum future along a 'business-as-usual' path. [9]
But not everyone shares this optimistic point of view, for example, Vladi
Chaloupka:
There is also an argument based on the ever increasing gap be-
tween the cumulative, exponential progress in science and technol-
ogy on the one hand and, on the other hand, the lack of com-
parable progress in our ability to use our new technological tools
thoughtfully and responsibly. [10]
Amongst the examples put forward deploring such rapid growth in hu-
man knowledge, is that nowadays doctors depend, more and more, on
the judgments and opinions of specialists “because of an exponential
increase in scientific information and an increase in the complexity of
medicine.” [11] But is it not rather ridiculous in the twenty-first century
to argue that we don't want so much knowledge because we can't handle
it?
If knowledge is managed sensibly and stored in computer systems
