Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Papers of the Third International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Budapest, 2–4 July, 1999) – First Part - Inczédy János: The role and responsibility of scientists influencing the wordl; past, present and future

JÁNOS INCZÉDY* THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF SCIENTISTS INFLUENCING THE WORLD; PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Introduction The most fundamental mission and destiny of man were expressed very clearly, and unambiguously on the very first page of the Bible

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. "God created man in the image of himself; ... Saying to them: Be fruitful, ... be masters of the all living animals on the earth." The unique attributes, by which man is clearly distinguished from all other living creatures, are the following abilities: - to collect, record, preserve and transfer information; - to create science, to formulate abstract principles; -to design and construct artificial systems, which may considerably intervene in the life of the world. With his free will, that is, his freedom in the use of tools and instruments, man can either improve, or destroy the conditions of life. The sequence of the three terms above is illustrated in Fig.1. It is interesting to note that in even/ segment of life, at work, or in private life, the very same sequence applies: Observation (collecting or receiving information) is followed by thinking, consideration or interpretation, and thereafter action, intervention. The driving force of the whole cycle, or repeating cycles is information

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. Information concerning the objects, events, phenomena, processes Of the surrounding Fig.1. Fundamental cycle in the human activities, world can be perceived by the M measuring device; <l>

inf flux of information

2 University of Veszprém, P. O. Box 158, H-8200 Veszprém. Hungary