[00:00.49]Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?
[00:05.84]Surely progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest.
[00:13.99]Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality,
[00:19.75]it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.
[00:24.19]Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech.
[00:32.17]With the invention of writing, a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.
[00:41.57]Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries:
[00:48.69]the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,
[00:53.08]which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.
[00:56.93]All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science, the tempo was suddenly raised.
[01:04.12]Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.
[01:09.33]The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent.
[01:14.53]Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account.
[01:20.77]What is called 'modern civilization' is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature.
[01:27.91]but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.
[01:32.24]The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge?
[01:37.83]As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil.
[01:45.50]It is now being used indifferently for both.
[01:48.82]Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly whimsical than that of gunners ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.
