Stop the Future, I want to Get Off
Remember Mighty Mouse? A tough little fellow - albeit a cartoon character - who was the super-powered saviour of rodent kind. Well, truth is stranger than fiction, they say, and not all that long ago scientists found a way of introducing a muscle growth stimulant into mice via a virus. The result? A thirty percent increase in the strength of the mice - strength that lasted through to old age.
Presently, the science is of mice, but it won't be long before it's also of men. And women. Today's mighty mice could be the forerunners of tomorrow's super (human) soldiers.
Then there's the face recognition software that, using a camera, can help a computer distinguish between the different members of your family. It's currently being utilised in video game play, but we're assured that Minority Report-style shops, where computers recognise you on entry and inform you of discounts on previously bought items, are just around the corner.
Science fiction is becoming science fact at an alarming rate. Who can keep track of it, let alone comprehend it? Francis Bacon famously once said, 'knowledge is power'. It still is. And that's why scientists are our new high priests. Just as in pre-reformation days religious power belonged to the clergy because it was only they could read the Vulgate (the Latin Bible), now power belongs to the techno-literate.
Our lack of understanding of the processes of particle accelerators, tachyon grids and gene doping (at least one of which I just made up), leaves us not just blinded by science, but beholden to it.
That's why people like Richard Dawkins have such an impact. 'Of course,' he might say, 'it's self-evident that God does not exist. There's simply too much chaos in the universe etc.' What we have here is a twist on Hans Christian Andersen's fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. Dawkins is not saying that only the really intelligent can see that the emperor's wearing a fine set of clothes (i.e. that God doesn't exist); he doesn't have to - he's a scientist. What he's saying is, 'if you were as clever as me, if you understood science the way I understand it, then you would see the emperor's new suit (i.e. that God doesn't exist) for yourself.'
If the truth be told, many of us are secretly scared that if we were as clever as Dawkins we might just agree with him; so whose word do we trust? Such a dilemma perhaps goes a long way to explaining why so many of us flock to lectures on science and apologetics - is it our hope to hear someone on 'our side', who's really, really clever, proving that what Dawkins says just isn't so?
Of course, at the end of the day it's always about faith. Nevertheless, we desperately need to engage with the world that is shifting around us. Science isn't slowing down; are we Christians even trying to catch up?
Jason Gardner
Links
You can keep up-to-date with technology via this BBC blog
If you're a wannabe futurist, check out Wired, the magazine for all wannabe futurists, here
According to Ben Goldacre's book, Bad Science, you don't need to be a scientist to spot bad science. Discover more here
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.
