It happens so often to our brilliant scientists that when they begin their research they are gung ho for science. Science becomes their God, little by little as the gain more knowledge they start running into paradoxes and weird stuff that cannot be explained with Science alone. Most not all soon begin to wonder if perhaps there really is a God. There will come a turning point where they have to as they learn more go back to their young faith as some things in science cannot be understood without God.
But he was wrong on so many levels. Remember that his education came during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and reflected the popular thought of the time. Mars was still considered to be an inhabited planet. His "thought experiments" were what he felt should be rather than what was in reality. He was brilliant, but not that brilliant.
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But I agree that technology is rapidly becoming something beyond our ability to control it.
But he was wrong on so many levels. Remember that his education came during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and reflected the popular thought of the time. Mars was still considered to be an inhabited planet. His "thought experiments" were what he felt should be rather than what was in reality. He was brilliant, but not that brilliant.
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But I agree that technology is rapidly becoming something beyond our ability to control it.
Marv, I have met some very smart men in the Nuclear field, Navy, that astounded me with their ideas on Society in general.
The worse one I met was a Weapons Officer on a CGN from Maine that I asked how he felt about the Lobster wars back home. Seems big trawlers were coming in too close to the coast and sweeping up OUR peoples Pots, buoys and cleaning the bottom of all our Lobsters. Our fisherman were armed with their own weapons and trying to protect their livelihood.
Our government was scared shitless they would create an international incident. So our Coast Guard was out there stopping OUR fishermen to find out who had weapons aboard. ----Sort of like having the cops guard your home so robbers could safely steal your stuff and make sure you just had to stand and watch and do nothing to stop the crooks. The cops excuse is that they did not want to make the crooks ANGRY, they the crooks were better armed then the cops and could really make things hard on them.
Any way back to this Officer. He now told me that no piece of property is worth the life of a human, and if these foreigners wiped out their way of making a living the people could be trained in another skill.
This was late 1970's and fortunately for me I was stone cold sober, had I some Dutch Uncle in me I would have slapped the crap out of him. What a wretched excuse for a Academy graduated officer in charge of Nuclear Weapons on a Cruiser.
When do we stop these foreigners do we wait until they hit the beach or just welcome them to our homes and towns.
He became weird at called me anything but a sewing Machine. I was just a stupid woman with out the knowledge or education he had and he felt sorry for my husband to have married such a stupid woman.
Sure he was considered brilliant to the civilian community but dam it he was just a creepy hick from the sticks to me.
Little known fact most of the Lobstermen do carry a weapon to protect their property ----Just like a cattleman will be armed against rustlers. There is a huge fine for lobstermen who are caught raiding others traps, that is if they are not found floating up river with the tide.
Brilliant in one field does not mean some one has a lick of sense in anything in their lives but their trained field.
That Officer really pissed me off and scared me so much I still remember him nearly 40 years later.