02-26-2011, 03:42 AM
quote:
Originally posted by TomK
I've spent the last several hours wondering if my loved one would be alive tomorrow or not. Thanks to science, she'll live. Thanks to science, I'm able to communicate with the people caring for her. And most of all, she's alive today thanks to a technology invented by astrophysics - you know, those war-mongering infidels who want to explore the universe.
Just over five years ago I almost lost my eyesight. A brilliant surgeon in Honolulu saved my eyes, something I will be forever grateful for. He was a kid in Hilo that got an internship at the telescope I now run. This resulted in him winning the state science fair and then going onto Harvard. He eventually returned to the islands and is making people see again. This is a small example of what the observatories do. It's not something you will see immediately, it's what they do to improve everyone's lives in the long term by inspiring people to explore our planet, the universe and science. And make people live longer and happier lives.
As for people being too individualistic, I'm not even sure I know what that means, but have you ever watched Terry Gilliam's "Brazil"? Is that the life you'd prefer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNnRBksvOU
Brazil was an interesting movie choice. It really did not portray machines and technology in a very good light. And Buttle worked for the "Ministry of Information". Information is at the heart of science, yes? Collecting data while having others run around a room trying to organizie the information with the lead researcher stands above you all telling you all what to do. Much like the clip you just sent. No, living like Sam in "Brazil" is not what I prefer. What shocks me is that you do not see that it is how we are living right now.
Both the left and the right have said that this movie protrays the other side. But they are both right and both wrong. Totalitarian does not depend on capitalism or socialism, it only uses them for control. Both state communism and state capitalism are totalitariian and we should not fall for their game of "divide and conquer".
And it is science that brings control, and provides the illusion of control, so it is made the hero of totalitarian societies. Brazil is a movie is a movie about anarchism. Note that you are never really clear whether Central Services is a government or a corporation. And there are terrorist bombings (propoganda by the deed).
I am really confused hy someone who wishes to promnote science would use an anti-tech film like "Brazil" to plead their case.
You have a notion that you are better off with your eyesight, but that is an assumption, yes? Isn't it implicit in your statement that blind people are not as good as you? That there is something "wrong" with them? It would change your life if you were blind, of course, by why do you have the assumption that it would be worse? You see, there is the totalitarian in you; nothing must change, change is bad, change is unplannable. It is like Sam's mother in the movie, constantly getting plastic surgey, science enables her to deny that change, it offers her the illusion of control.
And the assumption that there is something wrong with a loved one dying; It hurts, I can tell you from experience, but is it wrong? Is death a mistake of nature that we need to fix? And if we cure death, how do we solve the food problem with the never decreasing population? Sounding more and more like the duct work in the movie.
And I want to finish with one of my favorite lines in "Brazil'.
Harry Tuttle; "Listen, kid, we're all in it together."
Oh, and another one;
Sam Lowry: Can you fix it?
Harry Tuttle: No, I can't. But, I can bypass it.
Here is the entire Brazil script. Maybe reading it will make a different impression:
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/brazil.html
More regarding Gilliam;
"Regarding Gilliam's theme of modernity's struggle between spirituality and rationality whereas the individual may become dominated by a tyrannical, soulless machinery of disenchanted society, film critic James Keith Hamel observed a specific affinity of Gilliam's movies with the writings of economic historian Arnold Toynbee and sociologist Max Weber, specifically the latter's concept of the Iron cage of modern rationality.[9]"
On Max Weber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
Hope your loved one is well.