Carl Sagan and the dangers of our ignorance

“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements—transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment, protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting—profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”
-- "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan

Or for today's generation:
"It's funny, isn't it? We got all of this technology, we've got all of these clever machines, but if anyone actually asks, like, 'how does any of it work?' at all, often the best reply you'll generally get is: 'Uh, yeah, well, probably someone built a box, and a wizard spluffed in it.' And now it's magic, and that's how technology works."
-- "10,000 More Years of the Scientific Method" by exurb1a

#CarlSagan #Technology #Science #Ignorance