Science as a factory of technical trinkets

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The crisis of science is an integral part of the crisis of techno-civilization

The roots of the crisis in world science should be sought in the fact that science began to be used for the exploitation of nature. G. Galileo compared the experiment with a Spanish boot, in which you need to squeeze nature in order for it to reveal its secrets; our I. Michurin urged: "We cannot wait for favors from nature, it is our task to take them from her."

F. Bacon already in the 17th century formulated the slogan: "To conquer nature!" (quoted from I. R. Shafarevich's article "The Future of Russia", newspaper "Zavtra", No. 7, 2005). Today we are reaping the fruits of this "victory". The scientist - an intermediary between nature and people - neglected this mission and participated in the gravest crime - he used the knowledge of the laws of nature for its barbaric exploitation.

The scientific and technological revolution of the 20th century contributed to an unlimited expansion of the scale of production, an increase in the efficiency of the use of natural resources, which made life comfortable, independent of climatic changes, crop failures, epidemics, but at the same time inspired a person with an absolutely false sense of power, "power over nature."

Science took a decisive part in the creation technocivilization, which was built under the leadership of a speculative financial system, acting in order to obtain super-profits for the "global elite".

Dependence financial fraudstershas become a tragedy for science. Under the rule of financial speculators, science became commercial.

Scientists have chosen a cynical motto: "We do what they pay for!" Science, and, above all, Western science, has always fulfilled an order dictated by the competition between financial structures for spheres of influence and sales markets.

Science became an instrument in the struggle for competition in the world of two Superpowers, therefore, in the 20th century, investments in science were distributed approximately as follows (data of Academician V. I. Strakhov):

– 50%- weapon development;

– 30%- development of technical means;

– 10%- fundamental science, natural sciences, mathematics;

– 5% - social Sciences;

– 5% - education and medicine.

The payment for such a position of science was the rapidly growing narrowness of thinking of scientists, a meager mind that did not allow them to take care of the consequences of using their discoveries. Science has demonstrated that a mind without conscience can cause enormous destruction.

In pursuit of honors and money, scientists did not even try to convince politicians that defending the Motherland by destroying nature is madness, fraught with the death of all living things, and under the pressure of politicians began to develop new types of weapons - chemical, bacteriological, atomic.

In the production of atomic weapons, in their testing and use, in the production of nuclear fuel on an industrial scale - in all these actions only political and economic expediency was taken into account, and the environmental consequences were very superficially calculated, which led not only to severe contamination of vast regions (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Semipalatinsk test site, South Ural - the area of the "Mayak" plant, Bikini atoll, etc.), but also to general increase in the background radiation of the planet.

But, judging by the memoirs of scientists - the authors of the Soviet atomic project (Frenkel, Khariton, Zeldovich, Tamm, Ginzburg), they did not think about how many people would die and get sick during the tests, what harm would be done to nature - the trace of an atomic explosion was not calculated.

But memories abound with descriptions of the commercial success of authors such as: "a golden rain was poured", bonuses were up to 40 salaries, for barbed wire in Arzamas they paid extra 70% to the salary. Mention are made of elite apartments, dachas, etc. Thus, Academician V. Ginzburg in his memoirs cheerfully and without shame admits that A. Sakharov, who at first had no relation to the atomic project, was included in it because at that moment he really needed an apartment.

The names of these "remarkable heroes-physicists" should be hung in the cancer buildings so that patients know to whom they owe an early and painful death. And in Japan, where the growth of cancers did not stop even decades after the atomic bombing, these names should be made public.

Today, scientists, cowardly and obsequiously following the insane financiers and politicians concerned only with the growth of their capital, are participating in the promotion of nuclear energy, although the “peaceful atom” is obviously not completely peaceful, even in the absence of disasters such as the Chernobyl one.

And the problems of hydropower - ineffective economically and extremely dangerous ecologically, do not find a place in official scientific discussions. Only rare desperate "dissidents" from science risk discussing them (see, for example, the works of M. Ya. Lemeshev, B. M. Khanzhin, etc. "Socio-ecological apocalypse", V. G. Vasiliev "Energy of the planet Earth").

And the space industry, with the tacit connivance of scientists, acts to demonstrate the military strength of states, their prestige, for the sake of performing insignificant experiments, for the sake of getting money, for example, for skiing tourists. That every launch is catastrophic damage to the atmosphere, violation of the ozone layer, the release of huge masses of highly toxic substances, the consumption of thousands of tons of non-renewable resources of the planet - this is not taken into account. The mass launch of spy satellites and satellites for communication systems, carried out today, is also not assessed in terms of environmental harm.

The biological hazard associated with the large-scale spread of genetically modified foods (GMOs), which are poorly understood and whose safety has not been proven, says the doctor of biological sciences, a member of the Women's Environmental Assembly at the UN I. Ermakova:

“A number of independent scientific studies show the harm that they can do to humans and the environment, leading to the death of all life on the planet. Statistics show terrible facts: every year 800,000 children in Russia are born with various forms of pathology (about 70%). In Russia, the death rate is twice as high as the birth rate, and the average life expectancy has decreased by more than 10 years. There is a sharp decline in the number of animals and plants, the disappearance of many species. The process of degradation and destruction can be stopped only by preserving science in Russia, which will save Russia and the entire planet, which, due to human carelessness, stupidity and cowardice, has found itself on the verge of a powerful environmental catastrophe and self-destruction.

However, genetically modified crops spread across the planet. In 2004, they sowed about 81 million hectares in the world, that is 17% of all areas suitable for farming, which is 15% more than in 2003. This is due to the economic benefits from the use of genetically modified products by manufacturing companies. And it is not profitable for scientists to lose well-paid jobs, since grants are allocated for these studies. Therefore, science should not depend on businessmen, but should be supported by the state. In the meantime, Russian counters are flooded with hazardous foodstuffs, which there is no one to check and study, and independent scientists who honestly conduct research on genetically modified products are being attacked by transnational companies … (Vremya newspaper No. 11-12, 2006).

But, according to A. Golikov, director of the Center for Risk Management of Genetic Engineering of Living Organisms, “if a new product or technology is economically justified, then they will come”. We add: despite any warnings from scientists. And genetically modified products are commercially profitable, because they do not require treatment against pests - not a single living creature on Earth, except for humans, wants to eat them.

They are being pushed onto the food market not only by businessmen like the head of the Russian Grain Union. Arkady Zlochevskywho shouts from TV screens that he wants to eat only transgenic foods, but also "scientists" like the director of the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Tutelyana … Alas, today science abounds in individuals who value the chair more than life on Earth. And what less mind and conscience for such a "scientist", the higher the chair he occupies.

To exploit intellectuals for the sake of profit or to occupy them with meaningless trifles - this is the policy of global financial structures, which today command all spheres of life, including science. And scientists, striving for financial well-being, themselves humbly surrendered their positions as ideologists, spiritual mentors of society, public leaders and humbly agreed to make science primitive utilitarian.

Science turned into a factory of tech gizmosthat provide companies with profits. Modern exhibitions of scientific achievements resemble a demonstration of clockwork toys, where something glows, moves and squeaks.

The irresponsibility of scientists is a source of serious environmental hazard. Here are a couple of new "breakthrough" scientific projects.

In October 2008, the British Parliament allowed biologists to crossbreed animal and human cells.

In September 2008, the construction of a charged particle accelerator - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the research center of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN), on the border of Switzerland and France, near Geneva. The project has already absorbed more than $ 5 billion of funds, disfigured a densely populated center of Europe with a giant tunnel.

The motivation for these projects is more than dubious: the authors of the creation of the giant accelerator babble that they want to test the theory of the explosion, although they may well arrange a practical explosion, forcing all earthlings to test vague theories for themselves. Biologists are just as vague about the possibility of stem cell treatment of embryos obtained as a result of crossing, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. But the possible catastrophic consequences of such experiments are not seriously discussed. Scientists get off with jokes about the end of the world - they are well paid. And it would never occur to anyone to think about the preservation of nature, about the prevention of diseases, not by dubious treatment, but by the restoration of the purity of the natural human environment.

Back in the early twentieth century, the genius V. Vernadsky warned that man, having become the main geological force of the planet, approached the threshold of the permissible. Academician N. Moiseev in his book "The World Community and the Fates of Russia" wrote that "the most dangerous and tragic for a person may be the loss of stability of the biosphere … the transition of the biosphere to a new state in which the parameters of the biosphere exclude the possibility of human existence."

But the authorities do not listen to the warnings of scientists … In a short period of more than a hundred years, human activity, armed with scientific achievements, caused the so-called "scientific and technological revolution", which almost completely exhausted the natural resources accumulated by the planet for billions of years, led to catastrophic pollution of air and water, caused space monstrous, possibly irreparable damage

89 million barrels of oil are produced on Earth every day. All natural resources are extracted and consumed every day so much that it will take nature about 100 years to restore them. For a year, mankind burns such an amount of hydrocarbons that has been accumulated by the Earth for more than a million years.

The head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use A. Ledovskikh reassures us: "We will have enough oil for about 50 more years, gas for 100 more." True, the official did not specify who it is for "us" - there will be enough oil and gas in Russia. Judging by the rise in gasoline and gas prices, we are clearly not talking about the majority of the population. Then about whom? About Russian billionaires? They will definitely have enough oil and gas.

According to the Forbes magazine (May, 2008), there are already 100 dollar billionaires in Russia "We have enough oil!" - this is the only thing that worries the authorities, although the situation in the country and in the world requires an urgent revision of the attitude towards the extraction of mineral resources.

Techno-civilization, which has already absorbed the lion's share of irreplaceable reserves of raw materials, most of the Earth's space, has almost exhausted resources not only for its development, but also for maintaining its existence. Man-made disasters have become an everyday reality today. Artificial world, which man created, is teetering on the brink of death. Accordingly, science, focused exclusively on the creation of the technosphere, a science that works for businessmen, which has forgotten about saving nature, is also on the verge of death.

It is the irresponsible willingness of scientists to do what they pay for, without caring about the consequences of their exercises, that has led to a situation that is increasingly referred to as "Technosuicide" of humanity - hypertrophied growth of the technosphere, killing the biosphere of the Earth and man.

IN AND. Boyarintsev and L. K. Fionova