Emmanuel Ransford is an epistemologist, independent researcher in quantum physics, lecturer, and author of numerous books. He explores foundational questions concerning the Quantum Universe and Consciousness. Ransford is a Professional Affiliate of the Galileo Commission.
Let’s reflect on four major areas where advances in knowledge and technology are having a major impact on our lives.
• Physics enables us to understand and explore the universe. It has even made it possible to send objects and people to the moon. Our greatest technological marvels are based on quantum physics. In parallel, the discovery by Albert Einstein of the equivalence between matter and energy (E = mc2) has made nuclear power stations and medical imaging possible. But these achievements have led to an explosion in our destructive capacities, and our nuclear weapons can destroy humanity at the touch of a button... Less serious but more present in our daily lives, the unprecedented electromagnetic pollution that surrounds us is a cause for concern, as we are unaware of its long- term effects on health.
• Chemistry has revolutionised our everyday lives. We owe it plastics, which are so versatile and so useful that they are omnipresent. But chemicals disrupt and pollute the environment. This is all the more worrying because many of them, especially plastics, are not biodegradable. Those used in the home present a risk to public health, particularly because of carcinogenic substances (aldehydes in cleaning products, etc.).
• Biology and medicine, combined with hygiene, have considerably improved the human condition. The spectacular decline in infant mortality and the increase in longevity bear witness to this. It is even possible today to eliminate certain genetic diseases using a technique called CRISPR [= clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats], which makes it possible to insert snippets of DNA into a genome. But the CRISPR technique carries the risk of going awry. It makes it possible to produce “tailor-made” children that would possess specific traits! Ethical supervision is clearly necessary. Furthermore, medical practice has encouraged the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics (“antibiotic resistance”), which are a major health threat.
• The world of the virtual and of artificial intelligence is magical. It includes the internet, social networks, generative AI, chatbots and Chat GPT. But the virtual world, which is invading our daily lives, is threatening many jobs by rendering certain professions redundant. It is irresistibly penetrating our private lives - which are becoming less and less private - and threatening our freedoms. It offers dictatorial regimes great opportunities to control their populations. The virtual world also makes it possible, as never before, to create and disseminate fake news backed up by totally credible artificial documents (photos, videos, etc.). The potential for harm is immense!
Video and transcript at: https://bit.ly/3Tt2vgx
