In the last 1000 years we have not advanced as a species. We are just as tribal, dogmatic and reactionary as we always were. Given that scientists are people too, will science save us?
Not true. For example, people with epilepsy use to be considered demon possessed, and were sometimes executed. This happened for at least thousands of years. There’s a ridiculously long list of examples of how we have come far.
There’s not enough generations of humans to evolve significantly under 1000 years. Especially since we have been living under relatively no evolutionary pressure to change dogma and violence
Quite a bit of human development has been in the category of nurture, as opposed to nature. While humans have changed little biologically, I have an “appendage” in my hand that can communicate with an individual in space. Memes replicate and evolve much more quickly than genes do.
While it is true that we have collectively made significant progress with technology, (if that’s what you mean by “nurture”) it hasn’t changed our aggressive behaviour as a species which is what OP was questioning. Sure, we have made significant changes culturally, technologically, and with memes- so what?
I suggest memes as in the Richard Dawkins original definition, not funny haha memes but shared reproducible culture. We are social creatures, more than any other, and our social development has happened far more quickly than typical evolution ever could.
Accumulated knowledge in our society really is frail. Take a computer mouse, tons of people are involved in making them, they’re considered extremely simple tools. Yet not one person on the planet could go out into nature, get the natural resources required, and without help turn those resources into a working computer mouse.
You are not going far enough back. We are genetically the same as humans for ~75,000 years ago. To all intents and purposes we are ice age hunters with smart phones.
will science save us?
Honestly, no. We have known about climate change and the dangers it poses for at least 50 years but we have done basically nothing.
Science is just informing us how screwed modern civilisation is over the next 100 years.
I think your perspective is far too narrow. It’s not science that must save us, science can’t do much in the face of willful ignorance and entitlement.
Just look at global warming, the science has been there since the 70s yet we’re still walking past line after line till we reach points of no return. It’s not about the science it’s about the human element.
Humans themselves are the problem, too divided and focused on wealth and power instead of unity and progress. No fucking shit we haven’t gotten anywhere in the last grand, we’ve been too busy killing/robbing/exploiting each other, and that WILL NEVER STOP.
Tack onto this the fact that we have these insane billionaires and oligarchs across the planet who actively purchase big media and control narratives, working to keep the people divided and distracted. It’s not an accident.
With all that said, there is hope especially when it comes to science and my example with global warming, but will we see it reach fruition or will we see it falter in favor of quarterly profits?
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