Where is science leading us? : and what can we do to steer it? / / Lars Jaeger, Michel Dacorogna

• Autore: Jaeger Lars
• Pubblicazione: Cham : , : Springer International Publishing AG, , 2024; ©2023
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (341 pages)
• Disciplina: 501
• Soggetto topico: Science - Philosophy; Science - Social aspects; Sciences - Aspect social
• Altri autori: DacorognaMichel M
• Nota di contenuto: Intro -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Takeover of Scientific Leadership -- Geniuses Create a New World -- The Shift of the Scientific Gravity Centre from Europe to the USA -- Philosophical Implications of Quantum Theory - The Concept of Reality Called into Question -- Highly Controversial Philosophical Discussions Among Physicists in the 1930s -- How Europe and Philosophy Both Lost Their Dominance in Science -- Pragmatism Now Governing Science - With Consequences -- Philosophy for Quantum Physics - Still Essential Today -- Scientific Revolutions Beyond Physics -- 3 Publicly Backed Science in Competition with Private Companies -- The Transition from Fundamental Scientific Research to Technological Applications -- Relationship of Sciences and Technological Applications Today -- Who Finances Modern Science? -- How Do We Judge the Quality of Scientific Papers Today? -- Where Should We Go in Science? -- Three Past Examples from Fundamental Research to Revolutionary Technology - Penicillin, PCR and the Atomic Bomb -- Penicillin -- Atomic Bomb -- Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR -- The Most Important Technological Efforts Today - And Those in the Future -- 4 Philosophy in Science Is Over -- The Tradition of Science Interacting with Philosophy -- The Breakdown of Absolute Knowledge in Science Is a Profound Philosophical Challenge -- Does Philosophy Still Have an Importance for Science? -- Open Questions in Science Today Are as Well Open Philosophical Questions -- Why the Influence of Philosophy into Science, Besides All Its Needs, Is Still so Low Today -- A Key Mathematician Steps Out of Science Protesting Against Its Nature of Leaving Out Important Topics -- A Good Example for an Interaction of Philosophy and Science: Research on the Nature of the Human Ego-Consciousness -- More and More Important: The Relationship Between Science and Ethics. ; 5 Promising and Scary Developments in Future Technologies -- The Future Technological Application Changing the World and Human Beings -- Artificial Intelligence - Improving or Controlling Our Lives? -- Quantum Computers - Millions of Times Faster Computation or Just a Dream by Physicists? -- CO2-Neutrality - Can We Create Enough Alternative Energies in the Next Few Years to Prevent a Climate Catastrophe -- Nuclear Fusion - The Solution of Our Energy Problems or Just a Topic of a Century of Dreaming? -- Genetics - The Victory Over Cancer or Manipulation of Mankind? -- Internet of Things - New Industrial Technologies and Smart Fabrications or a Full Invasion of Privacy? -- Neuro-Enhancements - Improving Our Thinking and Acting or Move Away From Today's Reality? -- Understanding Our Minds Through VR-Technologies - Finding Our Ego Or Is It Unfindable for Scientists? -- Digital Algorithms and Big Data - New Profiles for Our Lives or Controlling Humans' Thinking and Acting? -- Blockchain Technology - Is It a Groundbreaking Innovation or Just a Passing Trend? -- Cybersecurity - Is It a Consistently Significant Concern or Merely an Occasional Problem? -- Nanotechnology - Creation of Things from "Nothing" or Just a Dream? -- Stem Cells - Using Cells That Can Do Everything. Also for Our Entire Body and Mind? -- Biotechnology - From Frogs for Pharmacists to Nano-Robots in Our Bodies, a Medical Dream or Future Reality? -- New Food Technologies - How We Will Provide Food to 10 Billion People or Just a Science Dream Story? -- Synthetic Life- When Humans Play God: Part I -- Life Prolongation - When Humans Play God: Part II -- Are These All the Technologies that Will Shape Our Future? -- 6 Physics from 1960 to Today -- The New Quantum World - How to Deal With An Uncountable Number of New Particles -- A First Theory Integrating Various Particles and the Strong Force. ; The Standard Model of Elementary Particles -- "Chaos" Theory and Emergence Patterns in Today's Physics -- Today's Situation in the Macrocosm - Will We Soon Get Answers to the Fundamental Questions About the Universe? -- How Realistic Is a Unifying Theory for Physics? -- Research in Physics Today -- Philosophy of Physics Today -- 7 Computers, Nanotechnology, Internet and Many Other Technologies -- What New Technologies Physics Has Brought Us: A Tremendous Amount of Life Improvements and a Few Important Open Questions -- Nuclear Technologies -- Electronics, Digital Technologies and the Miniaturisation of Processors -- Digital Revolution (also Known as the "Third Industrial Revolution" or "Microelectronic Revolution") -- Lasers -- Mobile Phones -- Internet -- Superconductivity and Superfluidity -- Satellites in and Beyond the Atmosphere -- New Materials That Do Not Exist in Nature -- Solid-State Physics -- Quantum Computer -- Nano Particles and Nanotechnologies -- Where Are We Going? -- 8 Biology from 1953 to 2023: Major Breakthroughs and Their Ethical Issues -- The Second Foundation of Biology: Genetics -- First Steps in "Genetic Engineering" -- The Development of Life on Earth -- The Origin of Life -- Genetics Since the 1970s -- Revolution of Genetics in 2012 - As Amazing as Scary New Technologies -- Synthetic Life -- Life Prolongation - When Humans Want to Play God II -- Ethics for Today's Biology -- Humans as a Bull in a China Shop -- 9 Brain Research Since the 1990s -- History of Brain Research Until 1990s - A Rather Short Story Compared with What Happened Thereafter -- Early Brain Research as of 1990 - First Insights and Many Problems Left -- Research About Our Consciousness - How the Brain Generates Our Mind -- About Our ("Ego-")consciousness - Fundamental Open Problems -- More Methods and Results of Research on Our Consciousness. ; And Yes, It Does Change - The Plasticity of Our Brain -- Key Technologies - "Improving" Our Minds with Neuro-Enhancements -- More Philosophical Questions -- Our Inner Model as Virtual Reality -- Our Mind and Self-Consciousness - More Empirical Studies, Dramatic Applied Technologies and - yet Again - Ethical Issues -- Summary: Scientific Knowledge, Philosophical and Ethical Questions, and Remaining Openness -- New Questions on Social Relationships -- What is a Human Being and What Should a Human Being Be? -- 10 Artificial Intelligence from Its Origins Via Today to the Future -- History of Artificial Intelligence -- History of Computers and Computer Science -- Where AI Stands Today -- The Current Interaction of AI and Our Brain - Does that Eventually Lead to Superhuman Intelligence? -- How AI Shapes Our Society -- Who Should Deal with the Decline of Our Privacy? -- The Development of Big Data -- Artificial Intelligence's Possible Consciousness of (Strong) AI -- 11 The Path Towards Modern Mathematics -- Mathematics Before 1920 -- The Crisis in Mathematics -- The Revolution -- The Path Towards Modern Mathematics - More and More Abstraction -- Dealing with Concrete Problems Through Numerical Methods -- Mathematics Today and in the Future -- 12 Astronomical Research -- A (Very) Brief History of Astronomy Prior to 1960 -- A Rather Recent Revolution in Observing the Universe -- New Discoveries in the Last 25 Years -- Cosmology - The Origin of the Universe -- Cosmology - How the Universe is Developing -- The Current Unified Theory of the Universe - Many Open Questions -- 13 The Future of Sciences/Technologies? -- More of the Promising and Challenging Areas in Science and Technology -- CO2-Neutrality -- Nuclear Fusion -- Food Technology -- Synthetic Life and Life Prolongation -- Historical Issues. ; "We Go Under" Versus "Yes, We Can" - Dystopian Pessimism Versus Utopian Optimism -- Social Drivers -- Us -- 14 The Myth of the Optimally Functional Invisible Hand -- The Legend of an Invisible Hand -- Who is Likely to Best Govern the Scientific Future? - I. The Side Actors: Cultural Figures, Journalists or the Church? -- Who is Likely to Best Govern the Scientific Future? - II. The - Democratically Elected - Government? -- Who is Likely to Best Govern the Scientific Future? - III. The Scientists Themselves? -- Who is Likely to Best Govern the Scientific Future? - IV. All of Us! -- 15 Science, Technology and Spirituality -- How New Technologies Shape Up the Economy - In the Right Direction? -- More Openness, Less Dogmatism -- Rationally Irrational -- How Can Broad Knowledge About Science and Technologies and Its Rational and Democratic Assessments Make the World a Safer and Better Place -- A New Way of Approaching "Spirituality" -- Summary: Ideas Instead of Ideologies -- Name Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book charts the evolution of the sciences and technologies that have shaped our modern age like nothing else in the last 60 years. As well as describing many exciting developments, it will also highlight the challenges and dangers of the technologies that have emerged from them. While science and technology have brought about enormous and often astonishing improvements in our quality of life, they have often also brought with them considerable risks, including the risk of human extinction. We place particular emphasis on the aspects that directly impact us as human beings: Artificial Intelligence (AI), enhancements of our brains/minds through innovative neuro-technologies, and the integration of nanotechnology into our bodies for early disease detection and elimination. What philosophical implications arise from these transformations? Authored by two theoretical physicists who are also experts in economics and capital markets - a rather rare combination - the book will explain the developments of modern science and the resulting technologies. It also examines the current state of play and emerging developments in a manner accessible to non-scientists. Based on their own experience and the analysis, the authors also propose ways in which science can progress more harmoniously in future.
• Titolo autorizzato: Where Is Science Leading Us
• ISBN: 9783031471384; 9783031471377
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910799202703321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II