The Multitudes of Progress

During the time of the Scientific Revolution, many new scientist emerged with new and different theories. Copernicus had the heliocentric theory, Galileo invented his telescope, and many new mathematicians emerged.The idea that everything was controlled by God, and what the churches thought, was starting to be questioned. The people of that time strived for new discoveries that haven’t been made. To finding out new ways and inventions to do more productive things. Galileo created his telescope so he could stare at the stars more accurately, his inventions allowed him to search on deeper in the universe. The world today is different. Though there is a lot of scientifically advanced technologies, the true purpose of most of these is making human life more comfortable, while during the Scientific Revolution it was to discover more about the world, so which one of these is scientific progress really made up of?

In today’s world technology is everywhere. Most of that technology is used for humans comfort. Smart vacuum cleaners, though it is an amazing piece of technology, it’s sole purpose is to making cleaning easier for the human. If humans don’t manually have to clean then the Smart vacuum cleaner has fully served its purpose. Though Google could be used for many things and in many ways, people use it for their own comfort usually. There was a time where Google wasn’t around and if people had wanted to go to a site they had to go through many links to go to the site they want. Google has many good and educational uses, but humans use Google as a more of a “makings life easier” technology. Humans use it because it’s information a touch of a button away, or in 2017 just a “Hey Google” away. Even the technology of talking to your electronic devices is no other reason but to make life more comfortable. This is evident, if you look at the morals and works of people in the Scientific Revolution and today, they are very different. Francis Bacon once wrote “the true and lawful goal of science is this, that human life be endowed with new discoveries and powers.” Francis Bacon believed that science was to lead to more discoveries, to create things that will leave us with more questions than answers. Because that is the only way we could try and look for more and new discoveries. Take Google for example, though the smart human could do more than just search for an answer and click the very first link, most don’t. They click the first link and there lies their answer. Whether true or not most stop asking questions after. So Google does not fit the descriptions of Francis Bacon of what science should be used for. Francis Bacon portrays the view of the scientist and inventors of the Scientific Revolution. Henry Oldenburg wrote to a mathematician once saying “ Friendship among learned men is a great aid to the investigation and education of the truth.” Galileo went against the Catholic Church in order to discover the truth. He proved the Heliocentric theory, that the Sun not the Earth is at the center and that the Earth is merely circling the Sun. That was the truth, and Galileo fought for the truth. As Henry Oldenburg wrote science was more than making human life comfortable, it was about finding out the truth about the environment in which humans inhabit in. In searching for answers, and finding more questions in those answers. Because of the Heliocentric theory, people made new questions and advances in astronomy. Without the findings of Galileo, humans would have still believed that the Earth is the center and there was nothing more to discover, for we are the center. During the Scientific Revolution, all these different scientist, and, mathematicians, thought more than themselves. They didn’t center the human comfort, rather than the finding of truth, findings of new discoveries, and helpful technologies to help with more discoveries. Galileo’s telescope opened up another entire world for people, it gave the people a door or a pathway to the unreachable. However Gottfried Leibniz a mathematician once wrote “ [women] are more detached and therefore more capable of contemplating the good and beautiful.” Gottfried wrote a letter explaining why women should be in science. As read Gottfried's idea of science does not belong to the worrying man. But to the women who have nothing to worry about and could think about beautiful and good things. If the women and men specifications to which were more worried were dropped, Gottfried is saying the working person who asks about what should I do to advance my work better, would not be fit for science. Instead Gottfried believes science is for the person who lives life with less worries, and work for the beautiful and good. In many ways the good and beautiful represent comfort. There were some who believed that making things comfortable for humans were part of Scientific progress. However if humans only use their intelligence for human comfort, there would be an inevitable point where humans can’t think, or work for themselves. The technologies that would have been discovered would be mostly centered around humans and helping humans,that there would be little left for humans to do. That power of imagination that humans possess would eventually die out, because instead of asking questions and wanting to know more, we strive for comfort. Scientific progress is a lot of things, and yes at times it could be something created for comfort. Nonetheless there is a fine line between the whole purpose of something being only that it provides comfort, or is actually helpful. That is a line that is being forgotten in today’s world. Technologies and science isn’t just about creating ways to make things easier,and to give us just the answers we are looking for. Science as Francis Bacon said is to provide the human species with new discoveries, and as Henry Oldenburg said it is to find out the truths of the world. If we only concentrate on comfort and making things easier, that is not progress but a regression, for humans are putting themselves back. It is important to take the morals, and discoveries during the Scientific Revolution and apply it to today.