Science, Technology and Society (Sciteso) Introduction to Sciteso

Science Area, CEAS

-VRSP-

The Legacy of Science

James Burke

Change is one of mankind’s most mysterious creations. The factors that

operate to cause it came into play when man produced his first tool. With
it he changed the world forever, and bound himself to the artifacts he
would create in order, always, to make tomorrow better than today. But
how does change operate? What triggers a new invention, a different
philosophy, an altered society? The interactive network of man’s
activities links the strangest, most disparate elements, bringing together
the most unlikely combinations in unexpected ways to create a new
world.

Is there a pattern to change in different times and separate places in our

history? Can change be forecast? How does society live with perpetual
innovation that, in changing the shape of its environment, also
transforms its attitudes, morals, values? If the prime effect of change is
more change, is there a limit beyond which we will not be able to go
without anarchy, or have we adaptive abilities, as yet only minimally
activated, which wall make of our future a place very different from
anything we have ever experienced before?