Inventing the Future: Reflections on Science, Technology and Nature: No. 5. (Adamantine Studies on the 21st Century)

Suzuki, David T.

ISBN 10: 0744900476 / ISBN 13: 9780744900477

Published by Adamantine Press, 1991

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Inventing the Future: Reflections on Science, Technology and Nature: No. 5. (Adamantine Studies on the 21st Century)
• Publisher: Adamantine Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0744900476
• ISBN 13: 9780744900477
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Can we count on science to solve the problems of overcrowding, species extinction and global pollution? Are scientists selling us out to the military and to big business? Is science being used to promote racism? While science may provide insights into the complexity of the world around us, argues David Suzuki, those insights present a fractured mosaic rather than a seamless whole. This book is part of the ongoing search for answers and new perspectives. Suzuki tackles issues such as the ethical questions posed by genetic engineering, the "prostitution" of academia, the perils of the "technological fix", the danger of policy-making being in the hands of politicians weak in scientific savvy, the need to reverse the decline in science and technology within education, the apparent denial of the spiritual value of land and the failure to seize on the body of knowledge about the environment accumulated by indigenous people around the world - people who seek to live in balance with nature and to leave some of the wondrous diversity of life for generations to come. The author's main argument is that the key reason for human survival as a species was our large, complex brain, and that the mind that emerged from that brain conceived of a future as no other animals have. Yet despite all the amplified brainpower conferred by computers, telecommunications, scientists and engineers, we seem incapable of choosing the best option to avoid catastrophic consequences. In the author's view, we must re-invent a future free of our obsession with consumption and profit - we must structure our priorities and our worldview by means of a profound shift in our attitude towards the natural world and towards the spiritual value we place on other organisms.