Our Responsibility as Scientists
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. There are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the men of the future a free hand. In the impetuous youth of humanity, we can make grave errors that can stunt our growth for a long time. This we will do if we say we have the answers now, so young and ignorant; if we suppress all discussion, all criticism, saying, "This is it, boys, man is saved!" and thus doom man for a long time to the chains of authority, confined to the limits of our present imagination. It has been done so many times before.
It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress and great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress that is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom, to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed, and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.
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The reason I love this lecture by Feynman is that it’s just so timeless. I first found it about 15 years ago and it pretty much changed my life. Ever since then I've tried to keep an open mind, and know that it's okay to be ignorant, and that it’s okay to have fear.
And that the true thing is not to be without fear, but to be courageous. To work and function through the fear. The other thing I took from this was that democracy itself was birthed out of the 18th century scientific enlightenment. In other words it was born out of a philosophy of ignorance.
And, to think that the speech was given in 1955. Just shows the merit of how timeless these thoughts and ideas are.
Ep 12: Pt 5 - Our Responsibility as Scientists