Modern Face of Science and Technology (National Technology and Socialization Cognition)

Author: Li Lei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: When we realize that today's science may have undergone tremendous changes compared to the past, we might think of a path humanity has once traveled: a path lined with monuments, recording the spiritual and aesthetic explorations of individual thinkers, their journeys, and contributions. It includes not only Marie Curie or Roentgen, but also Maxwell and Newton before them, Kepler and Galileo before that, and even the ancient Archimedes and Euclid—all of whom stand out as prominent monuments, making our understanding of them largely unrelated to the vastness of their times. But under the same banner of science, humanity may now be on a new, intertwined path. This path is not even a distinct, recognizable one but rather interwoven with the road of industrial and commercial civilization, the road of sovereign national interests and the national economic system, and the road of humanity grasping the future. What captures people's attention are the massive, non-individually achievable modern technological activities such as super-large-scale integrated circuits, new materials, space travel, cruise missiles, etc. These activities' results permeate the entire social life so rapidly and display material prosperity far more dazzlingly than the people engaged in them. These individuals exist in the form of a vast army, to the point where people are no longer accustomed to recognizing them as individual subjects.