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Showing posts with the label "science and funding"
Science and space exploration have achieved wonders in a short time of human history.  The paradox, however, is not only how the benefits have been spread out unevenly and how dangers of catstrophic misuse of science are real, but also how human priorities have been defined by the powers that control science. The latest example is the sending of the fastest object ever made by humans to the sun . The probe mission has cost $1.5 billion. A sum of money that could feed 41,667 children for 17 years. And that is in the U.S.  This is just an sxample. There huge sums of money wasted by lobbies and on armament and advertisements that are even higher.
"I want to argue, however, that we cannot understand science or speak of its limits or boundlessness in the abstract. To speak of “science for science’s sake” — as if, to paraphrase Samuel Butler on art, science had a “sake,” is to mystify what science is and what scientists do. This mystification, still often on the lips of the ideologues of science, serves to justify specific interests and privileges. Instead, we have to consider this science in this society. I shall argue that it is indeed limited, and that its limits are provided by a combination of two major factors. The first is material, the second ideological. I will consider each in turn." Limits to Science