He vist al New York Times un article sobre si la tecnologia ens atonta o ens fa més lliures. COm sempre, hi ha tots dos punts de vista, a vegades difícils de conciliar. Sobre enginyers i científics naturalistes, el NYT diu:
THE pessimistic assumption that new technologies will somehow make our lives worse may be a function of occupation or training. Paul Saffo, the futurist, says he could divide the technology world into two kinds of people: engineers and natural scientists. He says the world outlook of the engineer is by nature optimistic. Every problem can be solved if you have the right tools and enough time and you pose the correct questions. Other people, who can be just as scientific, see the natural order of the world in terms of entropy, decline and death.
Però el que més em sobta és la frase final sobre música atonal i gastronomia molecular:
Those people aren’t necessarily wrong. But the engineer’s point of view puts trust in human improvement. Certainly there have been moments when that thinking has gone horribly awry — atonal music or molecular gastronomy. But over the course of human history, writing, printing, computing and Googling have only made it easier to think and communicate.
En definitiva, segons l’autor, al llarg de la històira escriure, imprimir, calcular i googlejar només han fet que facilitar el pensar i el comunicar. Gràcies, NYT!