Limits of Technology and the Limits of Science

In 1997, I managed to get a copy of the bookEinstein, these attempts means implicitly assume
"Limits to Growth", which was published in 1972. Ithat there are limits to the theoretical knowledge,
knew the basic ideas contained in this book, bybut theoretical physicists,did not often depend on
reading about it in previous years, but there wasphilosophical basis to support this trend,and most
a very important idea, which I did not expect toof these attempts were established only on the
find it there, the idea did not receive the attentionpersonal perceptions of the possibility of achieving
it deserves. It a warning from the authorsthis ambitious goal. These attempts remain
(mostly technical scientists), from putting hopeincomplete and the history of science gives us
that the technological advances that can come inexamples of the stages of previous science,
the future, may resolve the serious problemswhere scientists thought they had already
threatening the world.reached these final limits of science, maybe the
Perhaps the reasons behind the neglect of thismost famous of these historical stages was the
very important idea,were two reasons. First, it isstage in the end of the nineteenth century. After
a terrifying idea, all the hopes of saving civilization,the theory of Max well about the electromagnetic
centered on the ability of new technology to dowaves and before the explosion of the ideas of
the job, and the second reason is that the Club ofquantum and relativity, at the beginning of the
Rome (the group who issued a book),did not givetwentieth century.
strong evidence to confirming it.But philosophical thinking takes another course, the
This idea is one of the most difficult philosophicalDialectical materialism of the Marxism confirms
questions,and it is central to the issue of thethat there are no limits to science, and in this
collapse of modern civilization probably the Club oftrend it is followed by most modern philosophies.
Rome based their expectations on some simpleIt is very important to note that the introduction
assumptions, such as, the probability of failure toof the idea of infinite knowledge, in fact, does not
achieve the saving technological developments, insolve the problem of an imminent collapse of
time, given the expected imminence of thecivilization, but only puts it in a different form. The
collapse, but if we wanted this idea to besaving technological achievements, which are still
established on strong theoretical bases, it isneeded very soon, if brought in tremendous
inevitable to go into the depths of philosophy.intensity, the result will be that the question will
I do not want to go, in this book, in the depth ofchange from "the collapse of civilization" to "the
this difficult subject, but I will try to simplify thecollapse of the image that we know, or that we
idea, so that the interested reader, would find thecan imagine for civilization", and this result does
basis for researches.not differ. In fact, from the previous one, as it, in
Technology is the application of the laws of theboth cases, all things related to our current life, will
theory in science, and therefore, if we want toend, the validity of this result,was approved by
answer the question: "What are the limits ofthe American thinker Francis Fukuyama, in 1993,
technology?" We must first answer the question:the credit for the courage,where the idea was
"What are the limits of science?"incompatible with his famous idea of the "end of
Scientists in the field of theoretical physicists werehistory", which was in the height of popularity at
trying,for many decades, to reach a theory theythat time.
call, "theory of all forces" or "theory ofOn the other hand, the adoption of the idea of
everything", one of the famous scientists knownlimited knowledge, certainly, settle the issue in
for their dedication to this attempt, was Albertfavor of the idea of the collapse of civilization.