Albert Einstein 240 words, 323K views, 90 comments
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On May 12, 2012Thierry wrote :
What I understand this great scientist to say is that you cannot conclude from studying its laws that the universe is either friendly or unfriendly. From the strictly objective point of view of the scientist the universe has no manifest intention. Mentioning randomness, the author says that he sees it as 'non essential'. Yet the randomness observable in nature, cannot be accounted for scientifically, least of all philosophically. Or can it? Present day genetics see randomness (through recombination of genetic material) as both life sustaining and life threatening (new unknown viruses , etc.) That's a long way from Darwin's theory which saw evolution as following a direction of progress.
Scientific knowledge does not answer the question of whether the universe is friendly or unfriendly. Scientific knowledge is a tool that can serve both survival or destruction. It's up to us to decide that the universe is friendly rather than unfriendly and it is the only sensible option if we want to learn more about its workings and its motives.
On May 12, 2012 Thierry wrote :
Scientific knowledge does not answer the question of whether the universe is friendly or unfriendly. Scientific knowledge is a tool that can serve both survival or destruction. It's up to us to decide that the universe is friendly rather than unfriendly and it is the only sensible option if we want to learn more about its workings and its motives.