Los últimos cincuenta años: el tiempo del conocimiento y la violencia
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Rev Cien Cult
Abstract
El presente es el primero de tres ensayos que analizan los avances logrados por la humanidad en áreas de las ciencias naturales en los últimos cincuenta años y los contrasta con el conocimiento acumulado a lo largo de su historia. En los primeros dos se incluyen análisis sucintos en algunos campos de la biología y la bioquímica, así como también en áreas de la física, y se analizan las contribuciones importantes alcanzadas en los últimos cincuenta años en estas áreas, lo que lleva a concluir que el siglo XX ha sido, ciertamente, el siglo del conocimiento, en especial en estas esferas del conocimiento humano. Pero paralelamente ha sido uno al menos contradictorio en lo que se refiere al desarrollo a escala humana. Al mismo tiempo en que se lograban adiciones de importancia al conocimiento científico, el mundo ha estado confrontando conflictos bélicos de forma casi constante que han ido destruyendo generaciones enteras de hombres jóvenes. A este fin se han destinado ingentes riquezas que podían haber tenido un mejor uso. Esta violencia ha sido también ejercitada sobre el medio ambiente, y a pesar de entenderse el daño que se inflige, no ha sido posible lograr acuerdos fundamentales que lo minimicen. Ésta es la temática abordada en el tercero, que cuestiona la sabiduría humana en la administración del conocimiento adquirido y su viabilidad misma a largo plazo.
This article is the first of three essays where the achievements in the natural sciences area is analyzed and compared with those accumulated over the whole human history. In the first two of them some consideration is given to areas of biology-biochemistry and physics, and an analysis is performed on the important contributions reached over the last fifty year, reaching the conclusion that the 20th Century has been indeed, the century of knowledge, specifically in these areas of human knowledge. But, at the same time, this period of time has been one at least contradictory in reference to development at human scale. At the same time when important additions were made to scientific knowledge, the world has assisted to a quasi-continuous state of war that destroyed entire generations of young man. To this purpose huge amounts of wealth have been expended that certainly could have had better uses. This sort of violence has been also exerted on the environment, and even though the damage caused is quite well understood, it was not possible to reach fundamental international agreements aimed at minimizing it. This is analyzed in the third essay, which questions human wisdom in the administration of human knowledge and its long term viability.
This article is the first of three essays where the achievements in the natural sciences area is analyzed and compared with those accumulated over the whole human history. In the first two of them some consideration is given to areas of biology-biochemistry and physics, and an analysis is performed on the important contributions reached over the last fifty year, reaching the conclusion that the 20th Century has been indeed, the century of knowledge, specifically in these areas of human knowledge. But, at the same time, this period of time has been one at least contradictory in reference to development at human scale. At the same time when important additions were made to scientific knowledge, the world has assisted to a quasi-continuous state of war that destroyed entire generations of young man. To this purpose huge amounts of wealth have been expended that certainly could have had better uses. This sort of violence has been also exerted on the environment, and even though the damage caused is quite well understood, it was not possible to reach fundamental international agreements aimed at minimizing it. This is analyzed in the third essay, which questions human wisdom in the administration of human knowledge and its long term viability.
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Vol. 18, No. 32