SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

______________________

A Formative Assessment Submitted by:

DOMINGO, HANNAH MEZIAH

PEŇANO, TRISHA JOY

______________________

Submitted to:
MS. MICHAELA JAN R. MOJICA
 “SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND (PART FOUR: THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION)”

By Yuval Noah Harari

Science is the group of careful methods for empirically investigating the world for logically
validating hypothesis said (Shook, 2011) while Oxford English Dictionary stated that ideology is
a systematic scheme of ideas, usually relating to politics, economics, or society that is forming the
basis action or a set of beliefs governing conduct. Supported of what Harari have written in this
article entitling the collection of other ideologies of just empirical observations into the embrace
of ignorance to spread a belief in technology in the method of scientific research and observation,
replaced some extent that belief is absolute true. In a basic translation, science makes the content
of ideology realistic.

The Scientific Dogma section flickers one question that captivated our eyes, “Why waste
precious resources obtaining new observations when we already have all the answers we need?”,
some what a thinking of a person, an ideology, that’s no longer open to learn, but it’s a
representation of how science makes everything unique, a cycle of accepting innocence about the
exact explanation of something we have into discovering what was the answer with a twist of a
new knowledge.

Day by day, we are still engage into deciphering new things. Thus, the ultimate utility of
science is widely agreed upon: the comprehension of reality, (Wagensberg, 2014). This is exactly
what scientists seek to accomplish, one example in the reading is in 1687 when Isaac Newton
published The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, he presented a theory of movement
and change that has the ability to explain and predict the movements of all bodies in universe. It is
a real test of utility, a theory that enables people to do new things that constitutes knowledge.

Furthermore, science has offered the world with new tools, from mental tools predicting
death rates and economic growth to the tools we physically do use in a daily basis. On the other
hand, a historian can precedent for everything and even know what clouds the bigger picture but
the whole thing is they do not try to translate their findings into something useful and do not even
finance a research to discover new apparatuses. They simply stuck their butts into what is existing
and digging into what is standing. Nevertheless, as science is present and solving unsolvable
problems, there are still chances that we people can go beyond the limits and acquire new
knowledge. Science itself is constitution of discovering uniqueness.

Scientific revolution started in Europe around 50 years ago. The last 500 years have
witnessed an unprecedented growth of human impact. Science during scientific revolution has
caused not only good and bad things in the world, but also a ramification or consequence of those
outcomes. Sometimes small events contribute big impact in an unexpected situation.

All traditional views of the world were challenged making a new way of thinking that relied
on observation and disbelief rather than accepting fundamental truths. One of the traditional views
that were challenged was the truth. Rather than accepting knowledge based on revealed truths,
scientists and philosophers had to rethink the nature of knowledge itself because of the increased
ems on experimentation and empirical knowledge.

Second, the religion was tested. The foundation of the revealed truths of the Christian
Churches, Buddhist, and Confucianism were challenged by the new knowledge and findings of
the astronomers and scientists. The discovery of the natural laws that were stated in the Bible,
Quran or Vedas had caused the philosophers to rethink the nature and even the existence of great
gods and Almighty God and its roles in the universe. Moreover, it was stated that science uses
mathematics. The philosophers specified that the universe laws could be quantified mathematically
and Bible, Quran or Vedas were missing out on a crucial secret of the universe and that the flesh-
blood creature might discover those secrets, in short, scientists filled the gaps or the big question
regarding universe.

Third, through astronomy the societal views about nature were transformed by geocentrism
to heliocentrism. The publication of Nicolas Copernicus in 1543 was recognized as the beginning
of the time when scientific disciplines gradually transformed into modern sciences.

Fourth, the existence of the medical renaissance, during this period there were
groundbreaking developments in medical sciences including advancements in human anatomy,
physiology, surgery, dentistry and microbiology. Many genetic procedures were invented like
genetic engineering that has bad effects on the life and perspective of a person. In the past, the best
minds of the day worked in finding ways to give meaning to death. But today, the best minds work
on finding how to prevent death through biological, hormonal, and genetic means. Therefore,
science does not take death as an inevitable.

Thus, the ramifications brought by science are all about changing the traditional and
societal views of a person. Many things were challenged and were changed, including natural laws
were being questioned. People’s views of the past have been influenced by science and it continues
to reach for the real truth and knowledge.

Living with science is living in a technology advance world. (Kvochko, 2013) with the
partnership of World Economic Forum stated that 40% of people were engaged into technologies
and further highlighted that ICT is the fastest growing industry that create millions of jobs and an
important enabler of innovation and development. It means that this progress of science gives
direct job creation, contributes GDP growth, makes workforce transformation and mostly perform
business innovation for 95 % of businesses have online presence.

Moreover, in the reading, technology advancement started when craftsman invented things
for war and occasionally improved. In 1961 during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, the
world’s military forces initiate, fund, and steer a large part of humanity’s scientific research and
technological development. Science became an offense-defense mechanism that is still growing as
world wars are continuously taking over. But, every positive outcome also contains negative
impact.

The making of these war devices included deaths of people, innocent and none, but digging
deeper, there’s a lot more changes and negatives it gave to humankind. One of the variations that
brought by science was the truth itself which scientists found, this truth caused confusion to many
people of the society. Even before science came, religion and other traditional views were already
existing. If a grown up person hasn’t much more foundation of belief he/she believes, science can
easily influence and transform the tradition’s views and perspective of that person.

Another one is in technology. Science had developed and continuously developing many
findings to business and medical procedures and inventions through technology. One is genetic
engineering; this allows people of the society to break the laws of natural selection. And the next
stage of it, probably human history will not only involve biological and technological changes, but
also changes in human consciousness and identity which is happening right now. Human starts to
evolve and take over the world and are on the state of overcoming the natural selection and slowly
considering themselves as gods.

References
Kvochko, E. (2013). Five ways technology can help th economy. World Economic Forum.
Shook, J. (2011). Is Science or Naturalism an Idology? centerofinquiry.org.
Wagensberg, J. (2014). On the Existence and Uniqueness of the Scientific Method. Springer, 331-346.