Bryce Dawkins
Paragraph 1: Science as I have learned has been a huge driving force for our nation and for the human species as a whole for hundreds of thousands of years. I’m only highlighting science more than capitalism and empires because science in my opinion aims to help all whether it looks that way or not, while both empires and capitalism seems to only help out one person or persons in particular. But as time progressed and people began to ask more and more questions science, capitalism and empire had too all work together at some point to find one a common ground to work under and to explore and understand the world and universe we live in. For and example I looked to the “brace yourself”. I look to the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. This society wanted to better understand how far the earth was from the sun. Yes I know this was not there actual goal but this was the main reason this expedition was cast in the first place so please bare with me. Wanting to know how far the earth was from the sun and wanting to better understand the layout of the world the Society sent an expedition of the most qualified scientist, artists, botanist and many others to retrieve and bring back the data that was needed. After going to all four corners of the globe, finding the answer to how far the sun is and also finding the answer for the cure of scurvy they returned. I don’t want to go into too much detail about what happened after they returned because that’s besides the point. The point is that a very powerful Society saw the need for a simple answer but then saw the needed for a bigger answer being solved and the need to know what was out there along with who and what. We have an Empire wanting to know it all mixed with scientist wanting to understand the sun and earth better along with geologist, botanist, artist and many more making their own discoveries along the way.
Paragraph 2: We have to work towards goals, we have to work towards a brighter and better future. I believe Harari sees what most see, an imperfect world where we need to discover and understand more than fight and conquer. I’m not trying to be confusing because this paragraph is supposed to be about progress but bare with me. There are many things that keep us from moving forward, moving towards that greater good, mindsets, people and religion are just some of the things that come to mind when thinking about what will stop us from progressing. Ignorance is a great example for the mindset aspect of my argument. At the beginning or maybe the middle before we began to ask rational questions and seek answers to the things we did not understand there was only the church. We as people would go to the church blindly and look for the answers of the universe. This is all we knew and all we had at the time. Ignorance is a great deterrent, this keeps us immobile unable to rationalize or comprehend the hard facts or truths that surround us. Understanding that the church cannot answer every question we have was a hard truth to swallow. As Harrai stats “No concept, idea or theory is sacred or beyond challenge”. I love this saying because this is a step in the right direction, moving oast our ignorance to step towards a better life.
Hi Bryce!
Everything you bring up here is very interesting. I was intrigued by the angle you chose to take here and a lot of your points are spot on. I like how you chose to focus on science apart from empire and capitalism, and although the practice of capitalism is near and dear to my heart, I thought you made an excellent point that science is the only one of the three concepts mentioned that almost always works toward improvement for the greater good, no matter how it is viewed. You went a lot of different places with this post, but if I may summarize the bulk of your first paragraph, you seem to value the significance of all that can be gained from something like a voyage or scientific endeavor, even when much of it doesn’t have to do with the original purpose. I agree with you on this point, and think it was a thoughtful direction to take Harari’s ideas. You have some wise words in your second paragraph as well, and the idea of “moving forward”, as you mention is so critically important to who we are as human beings and as a society. The Harari quote you included at the end was a perfect way to sum this up, and I think it highlights the goals of science (and maybe even empire and capitalism). Now that I’ve gone all over the place picking through your argument, let me say nice post and keep up the deep thoughts, I really enjoyed reading them!