Science, Technology and Human Development 8/31/11 5:03 PM

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Science, Technology and Human Development
By Vijay Bedekar, PhD
Wednesday, 21 February 2001
Background
Man, the Homo sapiens has existed and even flourished for millions of years and it is largely believed that he civilizationally
advanced from a food-gathering jungleman to e-commercial urban man of today. However, the emphasis on science and
technology, almost to the oblivion of human spiritual values, leading to the identification of science and technology to that of
the past 300 years - the period of Enlightenment and Industrialization of the Western Society - needs to be corrected. Due to
this, Science and Technology is invariably taken as synonymous with and an inseparable part of Human development. This
approach hides the undesirable, ugly and darker side of Science, Technology and growth achieved in the Western world.
UNESCO states this explicitly in the Preamble of Declaration on Science and the use of Scientific Knowledge,1

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In addition to their demonstrable benefits the applications of scientific advances and the development and
expansion of human activity have also led to environmental degradation and technological disasters, and have
contributed to social imbalance or exclusion. As one example, scientific progress has made it possible to
manufacture sophisticated weapons, including conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction. There is
now an opportunity to call for a reduction in the resources allocated to the development and manufacture of new
weapons and to encourage the conversion, at least partially, of military production and research facilities to
civilian use. The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the year 2000 as International Year for the
Culture of Peace and the year 2001 as United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations as steps towards a
lasting peace; the scientific community, together with other sectors of society, can and should play an essential
role in this process.

The correction should first come from the admission of the injustice of offsetting of millions of years of human existence with
the last 300 years, which latter has also generated a linear model and mindset of human - even technological - progress.
Unconsciously, because of this mind-set, we have come to use phraseology, conceptualizations and parameters of science,
You are visitor number technology and human progress and development as derived from the period of last 300 years of Western Science. Earlier
Cultures and non-Western Civilizations were equally creative in evolving their Science and Technology to suit their basic
needs. Claude Levi-Strauss� words would be worth remembering, 2

When we speak of world civilization, we have in mind no single period, no single group of men: we are employing

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