Daedalus : $b or, Science and the futureHaldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
Philosophy
Daedalus : $b or, Science and the future
Haldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
Biology; Science
The possibility has been suggested--I do not know how seriously--that
the progress of science may cease through lack of new problems for
investigation. Mr. Chesterton in _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_,
a book written fifteen years or so ago, prophesied that hansom-cabs
would still be in existence a hundred years hence owing to a cessation
of invention. Within six years there was a hansom-cab in a museum, and
now that romantic but tardy vehicle is a memory like the trireme, the
velocipede, and the 1907 Voisin biplane. I do not suggest that Mr.
Chesterton be dragged--a heavier Hector--behind the last hansom-cab,
but I do contend that, in so far as he claims to be a prophet rather
than the voice of one crying in the wilderness, he may be regarded as
negligible for the purpose of our discussion. I shall try shortly to
show how far from complete are any branches of science at the present
time.
But first a word on Mr. H. G. Wells might not be out of place. The very
mention of the future suggests him. There are two points which I wish
to make about Mr. Wells. In the first place, considered as a serious
prophet, as opposed to a fantastic romancer, he is singularly modest.
In 1902, for example, in a book called “Anticipations,” he gave it as
his personal opinion that by 1950 there would be heavier than air
flying machines capable of practical use in war. That, said he, was his
own view, though he was well aware that it would excite considerable
ridicule. _I propose in this paper to make no prophecies rasher than
the above._
The second and more important point is that he is a generation
behind the time. When his scientific ideas were formed, flying and
radiotelegraphy, for example, were scientific problems, and the centre
of scientific interest still lay in physics and chemistry. Now these
are commercial problems, and I believe that the centre of scientific
interest lies in biology. A generation hence it may be elsewhere, and
the views expressed in this paper will appear as modest, conservative,
and unimaginative as do many of those of Mr. Wells to-day.
I will only touch very briefly on the future of physics, as the
subject is inevitably technical. At present physical theory is in a
state of profound suspense. This is primarily due to Einstein--the
greatest Jew since Jesus. I have no doubt that Einstein’s name will
still be remembered and revered when Lloyd George, Foch, and William
Hohenzollern share with Charlie Chaplin that ineluctable oblivion which
awaits the uncreative mind. I trust that I may be excused if I trespass
from the strict subject of my theme to add my quota to the rather
numerous misstatements of Einstein’s views which have appeared during
the last few years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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