Technikatörténeti szemle 22. (1996)

Papers from the Second International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Eger, Hungary, 16–19 August, 1995) - Inczédy, János: Science and Information

JÁNOS INCZÉDY* SCIENCE AND INFORMATION There are many miraculous things int the world, but nothing is more miraculous, than the man himself. Sophokles: Antigone ( 450, a. Chr.) Unique privilege of the man is - completely differently from all living beings - that men have the intellectual power. - to collect and preserve, and to transfer information concerning the surrounding world, - to have ability - using his mind - for creating science, with non-material lows and principles - to have ability for design, construct artifacts and artificial material systems, i.e. technical products, intervening into the natural world: By this way he can improve or destroy the circumstances of life. It is not spoken here on the unique susceptibility of the men, creating different type of arts, musics, fine arts, poems etc. The fundamental base of the human knowledge, the fundamental tools for the motivation of the scientific thinking, and for the design of artifacts are the information. Information - concerning the surrounding material world - can be received directly by our sense organs. These are - the eyes, for the sense of light, colour and form, - the ears for the sense of sound and noise, voice, or melodies - the nose for smelling, - the tongue for testing, - the skin (the fingertips) for sense of touch, for estimation of temperature, pressure and hardness. The majority of the information is received by our eyes and by our ears. In spite of the fact, that the visible light is only a very narrow range of the electromagnetic radiation (400-780 nm), the apparent colour compositions around us ensure a fantastic colourful view, with thousand and thousand different tones and nuances, pictures and happenings. * University Veszprém H-8201 Veszprém, P.O.Box 158 (Hungary)