15. 现代社会中的科技
We noted earlier that a significant aspect of modern science is its contribution to the rapid pace of technological change. The technologies produced by scientific research are applied to all aspects human life and hence are a major force in shaping and changing other institutions in addition to scientific institutions themselves. An example is the impact of technological change on the institutions of mass communication. The advent of radio and then television dramatically changed the ways in which social and cultural values are transmitted to various groups in society.
The industrial revolution completely changed the organization of economic institutions and also had significant effects on other institutions, such as the family. Likewise, the internal-combustion engine, which made possible the development of the automobile, has completely transformed the ecology of North America. On the other hand, some technological changes are limited to modifications in the apparatus or technical skills needed for a particular task (the surgical stapler is an example) and do not affect large numbers of people or have major social impacts.
16 伽利略和宗教审判
The first person to use a telescope to study the skies was Galileo Galilei, an Italian mathematician who lived from 1564 to 1642. His observations convinced him that the earth revolved around the sun. Up to that time it had been taken for granted that the earth was the center of the universe, and this belief was strongly entrenched in the doctrines of the Catholic Church Galileo’s view were so radical that he was tried by the Institution, ordered to deny what he knew to be the truth, and forced to spend the last eight years of his life under house arrested.
Today scientists are studying subatomic particles called quarks. They have proposed that dinosaurs had feathers rather than scales, and they have suggested that the universe began with a big bang and that stars eventually become black holes. They have discovered the process by which the continents were formed and the structure of human genes in none of these cases have the findings been challenged by “the authorities,” religious or others. Rather, they have been judged by the standards of scientific investigation, one of the functions of the institution that we call science.