Author:
Ronchi, C. (Claudio)
Edition Statement:English edition.
Imprint:Cham : Springer, c2014.
Descriptionxx, 286 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Note:English version of Alvero della Conoscenza, with additional details and a new section.
Note:Time of growth -- Birth an florit of science in the Occident -- Scientific research as a global enterprise -- The crisis of growth -- Orthodoxy versus Heresy -- The dessimination of knowledge -- Beyond mankind -- Artifical intelligence and post-humanity -- Beginning and the end -- Epilogue.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-282) and index.
Note:Whether considered a devine gift or a Promethean conquest, science has indisputably and indelibly marked the course of human history. A product of the intellectual elite, but always nourished by the many fruits of its applications,science appears today to be a perfect sywstem, whose laws and discoveries guide all human activities. Yet the foundations of its authority remain an open question, entailing disquieting aspects that are also to be identified in modern science. Furthermore it is seen to be exerting, an increasing power over mankind. Readers are invited to follow an itinerary through the history of science, a voyage which, in the end, enables them to catch a glimpse of two divergent futures: One in which science accelerates the downfall of Homo sapiens, and another in which it helps our species to engage in a new and positive adventure, whose outcome nobody can know.
