Has science really made us better off? - General

[QUOTE=Athena;17542936]You're making it sound like a tube of Lamisil is going to create the jock itch that ends the world.[/QUOTE] I have experienced this firsthand.

[QUOTE=Athena;17542936]You're making it sound like a tube of Lamisil is going to create the jock itch that ends the world.[/QUOTE] In theory even a minor rash caused by harmless bacteria could with time change into flesh eating bacteria. So yes that could technically happen, although unlikely. [editline]01:30AM[/editline] [QUOTE=Doriol;17543019]I have experienced this firsthand.[/QUOTE] Since you refuse to understand logic, I am going to go ahead and leave this thread. Knowing and hoping that somehow you avoid natural selection long enough to outlive me and die by your own stupidity.

beneficiary or not, curiosity is a characteristic that almost defines us.

it has not really helped us in the long run, other than medicine, because with all of our T.V.s and computers and technology, we become increasingly weak and unhealthy. That, and the fact that there is no moderation to how many humans there are. there are simply too many of us on the planet, and that is causing us to basically waste it because all of it's resources are being used faster than they can be replenished. Look at back in mideval(yes I don't know how to spell that word)times. all that you had to do with most of the water that you found was make sure that it wasn't standing water, and then boil it. Now look, you would be crazy to even take a swallow of any water that wasn't filtered by heavy machines. The earth is trying to get rid of us, because there are too many of us. It's trying to kill us. :tinfoil: no, I'm not an environmentalist.

[QUOTE=will721;17542796]Post above you answers your question. Death is inevitable, but the rates at which diseases spread and adapt is increasing. Yes some diseases have stopped in their tracks but many are not. We are inadvertently creating super diseases capable of destroying life on a global scale.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I remember when the Spanish Flu came around and decimated the fuck out of us. That was totally caused by how clean we are and how advanced our medicine was. Bubonic plague? CAUSED BY ADVANCES IN MEDICINE!

[QUOTE=willer;17543514]it has not really helped us in the long run, other than medicine, because with all of our T.V.s and computers and technology, we become increasingly weak and unhealthy. That, and the fact that there is no moderation to how many humans there are. there are simply too many of us on the planet, and that is causing us to basically waste it because all of it's resources are being used faster than they can be replenished. Look at back in mideval(yes I don't know how to spell that word)times. all that you had to do with most of the water that you found was make sure that it wasn't standing water, and then boil it. [B]Now look, you would be crazy to even take a swallow of any water that wasn't filtered by heavy machines.[/B] The earth is trying to get rid of us, because there are too many of us. It's trying to kill us. :tinfoil: no, I'm not an environmentalist.[/QUOTE] Because now we know that just boiling it doesn't fix all of it. Also, filtering water is pretty simple if you just want pure water.

[QUOTE=Kybalt;17543826]Because now we know that just boiling it doesn't fix all of it. Also, filtering water is pretty simple if you just want pure water.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw.htm[/url] :science:

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;17543527]Yeah, I remember when the Spanish Flu came around and decimated the fuck out of us. That was totally caused by how clean we are and how advanced our medicine was. Bubonic plague? CAUSED BY ADVANCES IN MEDICINE![/QUOTE] Just the other day, I found the cure for AIDS, but then I got cancer.

[QUOTE=will721;17543023] Since you refuse to understand logic, I am going to go ahead and leave this thread. Knowing and hoping that somehow you avoid natural selection long enough to outlive me and die by your own stupidity.[/QUOTE] Did your dad touch your naughty spots when you were a boy? Learn to take a joke, bro.

All my answers were probably already said, so sorry for another redundant reply. [B]Besides medicine, do things like space travel, electricity, and cars really make our lives much better?[/B] Without the internet, your opinion on how worthless technology is would never have been able to get out to more than those few people you know. Without cars, our world and what we could do was limited to either our small town or a high chance of death on traveling. Sure we survived without technology like this but times were so slow back then. You'd know the same people from life to death every day of your life. [b]couldn't we get along without it for thousands of years?[/b] Life spans are increasing, work is becoming so much easier and believe it or not, we actually have free time now to do what we like. We survived life in the past, now we find ways to enjoy it. [b]I think that looking for extra terrestrial life is really the biggest waste of money ever. Do we really need to know if there are aliens on other planets? will it benefit us at all?[/b] That's not the purpose of our space programs. [b]with evolution (I believe in evolution) do we REALLY need to know how humans were created? is it REALLY that important?[/b] It's not important to me, but others out there want to know the truth. Also a lot of information on that just comes from medical advances really.

[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]Besides medicine, do things like space travel, electricity, and cars really make our lives much better?[/QUOTE] Electricity and cars are very important to the well-being of society. Space travel is arguable, but don't tell me that electricity hasn't saved any lives, improved education, sanitation, food production, or made anything else better. Come back when you've lived in a third-world country for a few months.

[QUOTE=will721;17542628]Actually I believe we are better off with just about every scientific field except medicine. Now before you rate be boxes, I am focusing on drugs and diseases. Not surgical procedures, anatomy, or the study of the human bodies. With current drugs we can fight off just about every disease known to man. Everything from the sniffles to some forms of cancer. But, at the same time, diseases do not go away just because you create a vaccine. Instead they adapt and mutate into a new much more deadly strain which in turn causes more deaths. Certain diseases, (like the influenza) are key examples of this. Instead of people dealing with the disease and being sick for a few days on bed rest, they are taking the faster and easier way out by taking medication. This is what causes it to adapt so that it can spread in different ways, or have much more aggressive symptoms. As a result instead of the more basic strains of the flew which left you in bed for a day or two with a glass of your favorite orange juice, new strains developed which lasted weeks with more severe symptoms. Then as you keep popping pills you again recover faster only for it to mutate from a low threat pain in the ass to a life threatening disease. This cycle keeps going until you have "swine flu", "bird flu", and large epidemics of diseases immune to all current vaccines killing thousands. Mind you this excludes certain diseases like Polio, but you get the point. AIDS and SARS are a result of this. Some believe this is also how most STDs were formed.[/QUOTE] Whatever, next time you catch a cold, a horrid sneezing flu, or something of the sort, stop taking your medication, and just live through it, lose time in bed being sick and don't call a doc, and feel like shit. (My point would be, yes, we are stopping becoming immune, but at the same time we still have medicine to re-counter that. Cycle fix'd.:smile:)

[img]http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/the-bubonic-plague.jpg[/img] Yeah, who needs science.

We're all chatting on Facepunch thanks to science! :eng101:

[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]couldn't we get along without it for thousands of years?[/QUOTE] The real question is would we be better off without science? The answer is easily 'no'. Without technology, we would not be here. You must remember, ever tool we use is technology. Fire, plows, hammers, wheels, etc. You forget, not all technology is electrical. Anyway, let's continue with this analysis. How would you come to a conclusion this retarded? Is this what your religionfag parents and teachers are trying to tell you? Science is the devil? Religion hates science because every new find by science further discredits the establishment, and also removes some of the reliance on religion for an answer. Why put empty faith in something when you could have the facts instead? Let me ask you a question in return: has religion really made us better off? *HINT* Watch Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist: Addendum. They discuss how technology is actually the solution to all of our problems, and why the idea "we'd be better off without technology" is a foolish and backwards plan. Technology frees us.

[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]Besides medicine, do things like space travel, electricity, and cars really make our lives much better?[/QUOTE] Try to perform medcine without electricity. Try to get heavily injured people to the next hospital without cars. Try.. ok for spacetravel, I have no example. Maybe worldwide communication using sattelites. [QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960] couldn't we get along without it for thousands of years?[/QUOTE] Sure, but in that time, we didn't really develop. [QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960] I think that looking for extra terrestrial life is really the biggest waste of money ever.[/QUOTE] Luckily, it doesn't depend on what you think about. Seriously, if you think we are the only "intelligent" species in the whole universe, you are ignorant. Space is so giant, the propability for us being the only is more less than for some other lifeforms do exist. [QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960] Do we really need to know if there are aliens on other planets?[/QUOTE] Why not? Science is "We have some topic, let's study it". [QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]will it benefit us at all?[/QUOTE] Nothing benefits everyone. But you shouldn't ask this on a science topic. There are things, you would think it's useless, while later it served a really handy tool for daily life. Who thought, Special Relativity and atomic clocks are necessary for GPS to work, when they first were developed? [QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]with evolution (I believe in evolution) do we REALLY need to know how humans were created? is it REALLY that important?[/QUOTE] You don't seem to understand what science is about. It's all about finding out how "stuff" works, so it can later help to develop other stuff.

[QUOTE=Izumo;17542053]It's a silly question, really. Are we better off? Well, ask anyone what species owns the planet, which species is present in every landmass on earth, which species plunges the oceans depths. Ask any endangered species if we're better off than them.[/QUOTE] Yeah guys, if we give pandas the internet they'll live forevar.

Why are people nowadays so quick to have a go at people like scientists who simply like to know things out of curiosity? It's fucking ridiculous. I get so fucking angry at school when half of my class mates have a go at me for asking fucking questions about the topic at hand instead of just blindly accepting what I'm being told without an explanation. Some of my fucking teachers in the past have also told me to stop asking questions. And yes. Of course science has fucking benefited us. It's given us modern medicine, methods of transportation, communication, ways to treat foods and drinks and ways to store them for longer without them going bad. It's given us the means to manufacture materials that benefit us in our every day lives. Why the hell would the answer be 'no'?! You'd have to be stupid to think that the progress we've made has been bad. One day we're gonna have to jump ship (whether due to overpopulation or some horrific natural disaster). Making small steps into space over time is gonna be a lot easier than trying to haul millions of people off of the planet at once if something like that happens.

I know it's a silly scenario, but imagine if aliens came to this planet and decided to take over and enslave the human race. (War of the Worlds, I know) If we didn't have weapons, or science, we'd be forced to accept it and be run by the aliens. :eng101:

[QUOTE=Khaos23;17548095]I know it's a silly scenario, but imagine if aliens came to this planet and decided to take over and enslave the human race. (War of the Worlds, I know) If we didn't have weapons, or science, we'd be forced to accept it and be run by the aliens. :eng101:[/QUOTE] I reckon if interstellar travel is possible then a species probably isn't going to get to that point if there's an aggressive species that start wars everywhere they go.

[QUOTE=sltungle;17548242]I reckon if interstellar travel is possible then a species probably isn't going to get to that point if there's an aggressive species that start wars everywhere they go.[/QUOTE] You never know how other species may be. It could just be a function of their brain to be violent. Or maybe part of their religion is to take control of other planets. Meh.

Before Science, (Which brought us stuff such as video games, or even books if you want to go that far) life was pathetic. Let's say Medieval age You'd wake up, do the chores, eat and go to bed. Fuckin fun right? What a pathetic way of living. Of course, more than science/technology (which is basically bread and butter) affected that. But science is a main role of the many things we enjoy today (Cars, fridges, ovens, TV, Video games) Basically, with out Science we'd live pathetic one dimensional lives.

without science people will still think that the world is FLAT

Do you remember the Chinese? They lived happily along with themselves and didn't go for the hunt of colonies. Why can't we?

[QUOTE=Khaos23;17548499]You never know how other species may be. It could just be a function of their brain to be violent. Or maybe part of their religion is to take control of other planets. Meh.[/QUOTE] But is a species that can't help but be violent ever going to be able to progress to a stage of achieving interstellar travel (if possible) without wiping itself out, or picking a fight with a stronger enemy and getting themselves killed off? I reckon cooperation is a better way for a species to operate in order to advance.

[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;17541960]Besides medicine, do things like space travel, electricity, and cars really make our lives much better? couldn't we get along without it for thousands of years? I think that looking for extra terrestrial life is really the biggest waste of money ever. Do we really need to know if there are aliens on other planets? will it benefit us at all? with evolution (I believe in evolution) do we REALLY need to know how humans were created? is it REALLY that important?[/QUOTE] Space exploration doesn't necessarily mean we're looking for extraterrestrial life, if we didn't bother exploring space we wouldn't have stuff like satellite TV, etc A lot of the communication methods we have today wouldn't be possible without satellites. Knowledge is always good, it might seem like the stuff we learn from space right now doesn't help us at all but it will in the future: - Finding alternatives for human beings to live in case of a planetary-wide disaster. - Getting the news ahead of time in case something bad (eg. meteor, comet, gama ray, solar flare, etc) is coming towards Earth. - Finding intelligent alien life with which we can trade technology and knowledge.

[QUOTE=Technopath;17548965]Space exploration doesn't necessarily mean we're looking for extraterrestrial life, if we didn't bother exploring space we wouldn't have stuff like satellite TV, etc A lot of the communication methods we have today wouldn't be possible without satellites. Knowledge is always good, it might seem like the stuff we learn from space right now doesn't help us at all but it will in the future: - Finding alternatives for human beings to live in case of a planetary-wide disaster. - Getting the news ahead of time in case something bad (eg. meteor, comet, gama ray, solar flare, etc) is coming towards Earth. - Finding intelligent alien life with which we can trade technology and knowledge.[/QUOTE] Yeah, except the problems with gamma ray bursts is that gamma rays are a form of EM radiation, and, as such, travel at the speed of light. It would reach us before a probe could figure out what was going on, and then send a signal to us telling us it was coming. In fact, the probe would probably be fucked up by one, anyway. Everything else you said is okay, though. All abstract knowledge eventually comes in handy.

Yeah, but gamma ray bursts can travel hundreds if not thousands of light years, a close one would be impossible to detect and we'd be fucked, but one heading for us is another thing.

[QUOTE=Izumo;17542053]It's a silly question, really. Are we better off? Well, ask anyone what species owns the planet, which species is present in every landmass on earth, which species plunges the oceans depths. Ask any endangered species if we're better off than them.[/QUOTE] And I'll say bacteria... or insects. There are some that are common to every landmass (Excluding the antartic and arctic, but we can't really survive there for any length of time either.)

[QUOTE=Technopath;17549040]Yeah, but gamma ray bursts can travel hundreds if not thousands of light years, a close one would be impossible to detect and we'd be fucked, but one heading for us is another thing.[/QUOTE] Uhh, the speed of light doesn't change. Either way the probe wouldn't be able to get a signal off fast enough seeing as it needs to register that there is a high concentration of gamma ray radiation, then it's got to encode a signal and send it to us. Meanwhile, gamma ray radiation has been continuing on to Earth at the same speed as the signal, and ahead of it. By the time we got the signal the sky would be an opaque, foggy mess.