Risk vs. Reward

In the general public, a new discovery or invention is met with a sense of wonder and excitement. Rarely are people cautious of any negative repercussions. Some of the inventions that are most relevant to our lives are in the forms of technology, including phones and the internet. The need to exercise caution begins right here: we tend to overuse this technology have no idea what impact the technology will have on us long-term, fifty years from now.

It is also important to remember that, while some degree of caution is required, being overly cautiousness can lead to people potentially becoming intolerant to new ideas. For example, Copernicus’s theory of a heliocentric as opposed to a geocentric solar system was met with much skepticism, and so was Darwin’s theory of evolution. The theory of evolution does not present any real risks whatsoever, but people still perceived risks just because it was different from their personal, rooted ideologies. The theory of a spherical Earth instead of a flat one was also a major dispute in history, and it apparently is still disputed by some today. Explorers to the New World were once cautious about sailing because they feared falling off the flat Earth, but they nevertheless braved this fear.

Although cautiousness is required in future scientific research, I don’t think that such cautiousness should compromise the spirit of the research and the risks involved to create a new technology. Stating that the future of science is “hemmed with peril” is too dramatic and unrealistic. While progress in science and technology does bring its own set of unanticipated risks, I believe that science generally allows for less caution, greater safety, and more innovation.