Our next meeting is on Thursday 13 October in the Notley room at the White Rock Hotel, starting 6:30 pm.
The speaker is our Chairman, Stephen Milton. He has provided the following summary of what he wants to talk about.
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The question that I would invite you to debate with us is
“Scientific discoveries will continue to transform society. But with every nook and cranny of the scientific world taking a lifetime to master, how can any member of society contribute to institutions that maintain a balanced view?”.
Is there now a risk that the ‘bunch of nutters’ (Vince Cable 2011) in the American Tea Party are just a harbinger of something much worse – a full blown anti-science movement where dogma transcends evidence. Are we seeing a reaction to the ‘Future Shock’ created by the continuous changes in everyday life forced on us by the exponential growth of scientific discovery? It would not be the first time that successful societies have foundered in this way China, the Ottoman empire, Europe’s own dark ages.
Despite the enormous benefits that we have derived from science there is an increasing gulf of understanding between its practitioners and the majority of the population.
Come to join in the debate.
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