The Alligator's Teeth

It’s not quite teleportation, but isn’t it amazing how small the world has become?  I can travel across the country in one day.  I woke up this morning in California.  My son drove me to the San Jose airport, and by early evening east coast time, I will be in Florida.  Travel internationally is, of course, even more amazing.  One can enter the wormhole in one country and step out into a different culture and language.  It may take a long and tiring day to do so, but it can be done.

As with other technological advances now available to us, both good and bad can come of this.  I can easily cross the country to see my grandchildren.  I don’t have to travel by covered wagon across the wasteland of deserts and impassable mountains I looked down upon today.  That’s a good thing.  The bad thing is that disease can spread as quickly.  Anyone on this plane could have been exposed to the novel virus now so feared…or even ebola.  Who knows?

When I miss my long-distance family, I can video chat…what a great invention!  But that kind of technology also makes vulnerable people easily available to scammers, radicalizers, sex trafficers and others with evil intent.

Genetic tinkering can be used to prevent or cure diseases once fatal, but it has the potential to also be used to make “designer” babies.  Do we really want to live in a world where only the “perfect” have value?

Lives can be prolonged by complicated surgeries…transplants, stents, radical excisions and reconstructions, but quality of life may be sacrificed in the process.  Do I want to live 2 more years in agony at great monetary and emotional expense to my family or would six less stressful months suffice?

The problem in each of these cases is that scientific research and the resulting knowledge has allowed us to come to a point where our knowledge far exceeds our wisdom.

This week I read a book to my grandchildren in which the author tried to explain the difference between wisdom and knowledge.  The idea was that you could know every possible fact about an alligator, but what if you stuck you hand in his cage and got it chomped off?  You might be smart, but you wouldn’t be wise.  We live in a world with many “alligators” about which we know many facts, but we aren’t wise enough to avoid being bitten.

I am a lover of science.  My undergraduate degree is in chemistry, and I tremendously enjoy learning new things.  I am not suggesting we should stop learning and exploring and trying to use our knowledge to improve lives.  But….what do we do about the inherent risks of evil associated with our advancements?

An alligator may have as many as 3000 teeth during its lifetime, but how do we avoid being punctured?