We have given ourselves up to progress. This statement cannot be contested; the proof of it is everywhere. Progress, however, should not be accepted without answering a host of questions, the foremost of which is: where are we going and why? Why do we need to seek technological advancement? Why do we push the borders of the wholly flawed concept of civilization?
How is progress measured? The more we create, the more we design, the more we invent, the more we advance, the more we construct, the further we progress! The faster we go, the more we progress! The better our devices, the more we progress! We have created a society that needs to be on the move. Is progress not possible without this constant movement? Could we not progress something as we remain in one spot? Does social progression have to include expansion?
What factors drive this progression? Is there a human element to progress as a society? Should there be? As a civilization we need resources; this is a simple well known fact. We push our borders to encompass the resources we see available. This is the economic factor: the need to feed, the need to consume. Now, however, with little resources left outside of the grasp of civilization, there are few borders left to push, few things left to bring in. We are driven to find new ways of producing resources, or new resources altogether. Science fights to discover what it can use to advance society. Is this in the name of progress or for the sake of bettering civilization? Is progress aimless? Is bettering civilization the cause of and reason for progress, or is one simply the result of the other?
Either way, science remains a driving factor in the machine of progress. Science has become the new religion; it is the focal point of our society's faith. We believe, as a group, that science will keep us warm, safe, fed, and in contact with each other. Science has done this! Science keeps us always moving forward, but do we know where it is going? How much do we the people know of what modern science is doing, and how much is the common man prepared to understand?
“Reality is what science can measure and explain” has become the manifesto of this Post-Modern society. Does this not place too much emphasis on the sciences? Can science measure humanity? Has science ever been able to measure life? Can science explain existence and tell us how we got here? It has not yet proven that it can; it has not yet measured or explained the most obvious and fundamental question there is and this renders the manifesto void. How could reality not be what we are experiencing? How could reality not be the most simple sensations and processes? Descartes said: “I think, therefore I am”
And if the manifesto is rendered void by a simple fallacy of science, where do we proceed as a civilization. How do we progress? Do we need to measure progress in a scientific manner? In part, yes, but progress can not and must not be measured by scientific and economic gains alone. Progress must also gauge our worth as a society by the levels of joy, knowledge, community and enlightenment the citizens possess. Progress must measure both in the advancement of science and the betterment of our conditions. Progress must realize who it works for and we must realize that science, progress and economy are all tools we made and begin to use them as they were meant for.
