Science and the will-o’-the-wisp

Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021

A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021

Institute for the Future – DAVID PESCOVITZ – Dec 5, 2011

More than a dozen scientists from UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, Scripps Research Institute, SETI, and private industry shared their edgiest research driving transformations in science. MythBusters’ Adam Savage weighed in on the future of science education. All of their presentations were signals supporting IFTF’s new “Future of Science” forecast, laid out in a new map titled “A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021.” The map focuses on six big stories of science that will play out over the next decade: Decrypting the Brain, Hacking Space, Massively Multiplayer Data, Sea the Future, Strange Matter, and Engineered Evolution. Go to story


Their claim that they will soon prove a chemical origin of life is something like paying someone with a postdated check.

excerpt from Life Comes from Life:

Inferior and superior energy

Scientists looking to get a life
Modern scientific research is just like Sankhya philosophy, which analyzes material elements. Sankhya means “to count.” We are also Sankhya philosophers to some extent, because we count and analyze the material elements—this is land, this is water, this is air, this is sunshine, this is fire. Furthermore, I can count my mind, my intelligence, and my ego. Beyond my ego, however, I cannot count. But Krishna says that there is existence beyond the ego, and that existence is the living force—the spirit soul. This is what the scientists do not know. They think that life is merely a combination of material elements, but Krishna denies this in the Bhagavad-gita (7.5). Apareyam itas tv anyam prakritim viddhi me param: “Besides this inferior nature there is a superior energy of Mine.” The inferior energy is the material elements, and the superior energy is the living entity. more

KARANDHAR: They say they will create life in the future.

PRABHUPADA: What future? When this crucial point is raised, they reply, “We shall do it in the future.” Why in the future? That is nonsense. “Trust no future, however pleasant.” If they are so advanced, they must demonstrate now how life can be created from chemicals. Otherwise what is the meaning of their advancement? They are talking nonsense.

KARANDHAR: They say that they are right on the verge of creating life.

PRABHUPADA: That’s only a different way of saying the same thing: “In the future.” The scientists must admit that they still do not know the origin of life. Their claim that they will soon prove a chemical origin of life is something like paying someone with a postdated check. Suppose I give you a postdated check for ten thousand dollars but I actually have no money. What is the value of that check? Scientists are claiming that their science is wonderful, but when a practical example is wanted, they say they will provide it in the future. Suppose I say that I possess millions of dollars, and when you ask me for some money I say, “Yes, I will now give you a big postdated check. Is that all right?” If you are intelligent, you will reply, “At present give me at least five dollars in cash so I can see something tangible.” Similarly, the scientists cannot produce even a single blade of grass in their laboratories, yet they are claiming that life is produced from chemicals. What is this nonsense? Is no one questioning this?

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