From WILLIAM BAINS
David Holbrook’s thesis that modern science is antithetical to recognition
of the creative genius of humanity (Forum, 23 May) has been having a lot
of press coverage recently. But the argument is nonsense.
Evolution is not teleological. Survival is not a goal of evolution in
the same sense as shopping is the goal of driving into town. Survival is
what happens when you take a collection of things and sift out some of them.
Fish that are fish-shaped swim away from predators or towards food faster
than ones shaped like a brick or a string quartet. As a result, they survive.
There is no teleology.
‘Surely’, the argument goes, ‘blind evolutionary forces cannot have
produced something as wonderful as me?’ Surely, the argument should go,
you could not give yourself any credit for your wonderfulness if it was
designed by someone else. If we were ‘designed’, then our creators take
the credit for radio and flight and Chartres Cathedral, and the blame for
Hiroshima and the Amazon rainforest. But we were not designed. We evolved.
Who achieves my writing, my invention? Me! Who else? Hurray for me! And
all the rest of us.
The search for extraterrestrial life is a celebration of just this feeling.
As Holbrook says, they may not have evolved yet, or may have not have bothered
with radio. Or there may simply not be anyone out there. But to deny that
we should look because it debases our humanity is to get the argument exactly
wrong. It celebrates out achievements, seeks to place them not merely in
a terrestrial context but in a truly Universal one.
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Science is a critical part of those achievements. It makes the faxes
and the phones and the colour printing that propagates the anti-science
views of the chatterati. Science actually works. And it is this practicality
that drives science to look for ET life, not just argue about it. ‘Would
not a cheaper way of approaching this question be to hold a philosophical
conference on the implications of the search itself?’ asks Holbrook. More
words! For over 5000 years people have talked about whether there is anyone
else. We have had enough talk. Let’s go and see.
William Bains Royston, Hertfordshire
