Page 237 - The Black Box Book

B A B Y L O N O F E X P E R T S He also sees the technology as a main driver force of the atomiza-
tion of science and claims that the awaited benefits of specializations of
When we think of sustainable approaches, some deeper questions disciplines turned to opposite consequences: “a multischizoid, complex
about our society arise. Natural resources are depleted by the extractive reality has replaced what should have been the simple one-dimensional
consumption economy, but there is undeniably a cultural dimension of reality of classical thought”. (Nicolescu, 2002, p. 37)
unsustainability relating to behaviors, social conventions, institutions, Despite all the scientific discoveries and knowledge, we’ve seen
values, worldviews, and epistemological bases. (Kagan, 2013, p. 24) the growth of anti-scientific worldview. The number of Flat Earthers, re-
In our society, vertical, spiritual, substantive rationality that fostered critical jecting any fact or rational argument, the Q-anon and other conspiracy
reflection was supplanted by sensoric, hyper-consumerist rationality and theories that accumulated followers by offering easy answers to complex
technologist effectivity. Historical developments of science has constituted problems. What science cannot explain is replaced by magical thinking
a worldview that is atomistic and individualistic. Things are distinct and and slippery logic that home on affective concerns and behaviors. Q-anon
measurable material entities, people are separated from each other and snowballed this way other social groups, being interested in holistic think-
from their environment. Industrial and postindustrial western societies ing, yoga, or wellness. Undermoderated social platforms provided by global
are the paradigms of economic progress and development. However, not corporations just took advantage of situation they created themselves,
only philosophers suggest that there might be something wrong with and amplify affect and fear to monetize on, while slipping out of any social
the modernist scientific thought and its application. Erwin Laszlo points responsibility.
out that this atomistic view, inherited from the modern scientific method, We should learn from this situation on social media while searching
has its roots in the fragmentation of our understanding. (Laszlo, 1996, for transdisciplinary solutions for science suffering from ‘Babelisation’ and
p. 33) An advocate of transdisciplinary thinking, Basarab Nicolescu , re- to work for a more consistent, socially interconnected communication
fers to it as a ’paradigm of simplicity’, and contends that it is based on networks set up to ensure that exclusive specialized knowledge has to
the binary thinking produced by classical logic and the rigid norms of be followed by additional levels of inclusive public discourse. The same
truth in science, thanks to which “discipline can pretend to contain all goal is necessary when the interfaces of public cultural repositories are
knowledge within its own field entirely”. (Nicolescu, 2002, p. 33) designed.
During the pandemic of Covid-19 disease we could observe how the In Art and Sustainability, Sacha Kagan (Kagan, 2013, p. 37) describes
impervious boundaries of specializations limited any expert discussion. how ‘Technological System’, e.g., efficient and rational implementation
Journalists were often met with evasive answers from experts like: “I am of technology and technocratic decisions throughout the whole society,
a clinician, you have to ask epidemiologist”, “I am an epidemiologist, is deeply rooted in positivism of Enlightenment accepts only one com-
you have to ask immunologist”, “I am an immunologist you have to ask mon logic that is based on representation by numbers, while anything
vaccinologist” and so on. Even the scholars of environmental subdisci- escaping this reasoning is seen as a mere illusion. The pure reason of
plines, that just operate on varied scales, e.g., population biology and positivists science is driving the technical progress, and thus it is re-
ecosystem ecology, were often not able to communicate with each other. quired to be free of any mythical thought and to become an universal
(Kuneš, 2020, p. 215) instrument in all-encompassing economical apparatus. Universal robots
Nicolescu describes this situation of narrow specialization of human in Karel Čapek’s dystopic play R. U. R., Rossum’s Universal Robots (1921)
knowledge as Babelisation: illustrated this idea by being designed to produce anything ‘ad infinitum’,
without rising any ethical or moral questions. Niklas Luhman, system
“The decision-maker becomes increasingly more incompetent sociologist, remarks:
regardless of his or her intention […] even a group comprised of
the best specialists from all the various disciplines would only be “Technological progress leads to ecological disasters, which can-
able to develop a generalized incompetence, for the simple reason not be avoided however only through more advance technological
that the sum total of competencies is not competence: on technical progress and thus at the price of an even greater dependency of
level, the intersection between different domains of knowledge is an society to technology.” (Luhmann, 1999, p. 47)
empty ensemble.” (Nicolescu, 2002, p. 42)
On the contrary, Kagan explains, the art does not fit into this system of the
‘most efficient method’ and artists as dreamers are part of quite opposite
invention of 19th century – subjectivity and individualism of Romanticism.
‘Romantic Order’ is where all intuition, imagination, attention to feelings
and admiration of nature reside. Artists in Romantic Order are gifted to
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