With so much scientific, technological, economic and cultural progress of humans and society, we suddenly find one basic ingredient missing from life. And that is happiness. Surprising? Or rather shocking! Because we perceive happiness as directly proportional to all such progress, which, sadly, we realize is not the case. The reason. Simple yet complex. Because, in the first place we perceived material gains as success and tangible accumulations as valuable possessions and just clean forgot about the role intangibles have to play in our lives. Because, happiness is a result of emotional, intellectual & spiritual possessions or satisfaction and not so much about materialistic possessions.
When talking of these invisible, intangibles which give us fairly visible happiness, it is the happiness or satisfaction of our inner self that comes into play. The voice of our inner self is nothing but our conscience. If our conscience reflects lightness, happiness will automatically follow. Now, it just struck me that the very word conscience has the word Science ensconced in it. Which means that the word Science is embedded in conscience and so in values & ethics .
And hence Science already has an established relationship with values, only we never thought of it. Now by definition, Science, which comes from the Latin “Scientia” meaning knowledge, “is a systematic study and knowledge of natural or physical phenomenon”.
Technology, by definition is “application of practical or mechanical sciences to industry or commerce”. That is technology is nothing but application of Science to certain purposes. And since a relation has been established between Science and values, therefore we arrive at the corollary that technology too is related to values. So Science, Technology and values are interlinked. But what exactly do values mean? What is value to begin with?
Now, value is defined as “worth (monetary or otherwise) or utility or importance for the possessor”. But again, as with all other things, the same word may signify different perceptions. So for an Economist, value is defined as “utility or even power”, for a Mathematician it may amount to “magnitude” while from the marketing perspective, value simply means “customer’s perception”.
And values are concepts or beliefs or moral principles and these may be different for different people, cultures or societies, depending on their individual upbringing, religions, traditional customs, their unique set of experiences and their background intellectual perceptions. Values are the ideology followed. The set of values that we follow are not made in day. They are the result of our cultural background, our educational background, our intellectual understanding and many many more influences of life’s various influences on our mental, emotional & spiritual psyche.
Having said that, if I still harp on the fact that basically all of us humans are inherently born with certain fixed set of values and it is how and what life has dealt us with and how we have dealt with life, that each one of us arrives at a unique set of values, I wouldn’t be too wrong.
That brings us to the abstract thought that if we can unlearn most of what we’ve learnt from various sources, cultures, educations, people, society, influences, backgrounds et al, we will arrive at a common platform of basic values, which are identical in all humans, irrespective of our upbringing or location or anything else. This unlearning, which of course cannot by any means come to us without first learning all that we need to learn to arrive at this stage, will connect us to ourselves, our inner voice, our conscience.
The basics that we are born with, the values of honesty, integrity, ethics, are, as we have seen above, linked with Science & Technology. But in the modern era, this connection seems to have severed and people have broken free of all shackles of conscience, of values, of ethics that bound their hearts for centuries. This we think is progress and forward looking mindset. And, as a result, nature too has broken free of all its rules and regulations and the climate has gone for a toss. Now we have freedom for all, man, nature, environment, climate and even the economy. Everything! And see the result. Nothing, nothing at all in this world is predictable. Mankind is going its way and man is not kind anymore (don’t know if women still are …though…..!!!). The climate has become more of a challenge to be countered and the global warming has melted not only glacial ice but the global economy as well. So, one is in a terrible mess of all sorts, trying to grapple with extreme weather conditions, climatic disasters, economic slowdown and erosion of values.
In such a disastrous situation, only one thing can save the world and that is going back to the basics, the foundation of our humanistic behavior, our original value system, our basic values. And however much of Science, Technology, Engineering or Medicine we may study, the fact remains that if it is not based on the foundation of ethics & values, the whole structure is going to collapse. Just like in engineering, cutting down on quality standards and using sub-standard material may lead to bridges or roads giving way or in medicine, compromising on certain standards may lead to death and destruction.
Thus it is very crucial for us to focus on the things that will lead us to a sustainable world. The need of the hour therefore is to choose between need and greed, happiness and pleasure, spiritualism and materialism. Progress and development will therefore have to acquire a new dimension in our action and a new perception in our minds. Dishonesty, corruption, inequity and self-centered way of life have to be changed and an attitude of holistic wellbeing of society is to be imbibed. This will strike a balance once more and we can hope to move towards development in the truest sense of the term, which would mean inclusive growth and holistic development of society. And for that we need to look inwards rather than outwards. That is transformation of the inner self is due. For that knowledge and study of the self is required. So Science has to be first applied to our inner being, engineering is first required to be practiced on our self, to evolve a methodology of improving our quality and hence the quality of life on this planet.
Thus, Science, Technology & Human values merge into one another to create a holistic being. The aim is not to be the best scientist, technologist or engineer or doctor, but to be the best human being who continues to occupy a place in the world but more importantly a space in people’s hearts and minds. Because that’s the only thing that remains even after you’re dead and long gone!!
By Manisha Gupta, Researcher Trainer & Consultant, New Delhi
