Knowledge and its Enemies: Towards a New Case for Higher Learning

Abstract

This work was long in gestation, with the first seeds being planted when I was a young reporter at the 'Canberra Times'. At an international conference at the Australian National University, I had interviewed a North American atmospheric scientist. He voiced dire concern that emissions from the Concorde jet and aerosol sprays were depleting a layer of the earth's upper atmosphere, and he was certain this was a step towards the collapse of the biosphere. Our understanding of human-induced "climate change" was then very much in its infancy. Was it really possible that technology created by humans could set off such a cataclysmic chain reaction? Moreover, could this concern, if founded, alter the way people went about their lives and would this reverse the impacts? More importantly, at that moment in time, was there a story in any of this? Yes, most definitely, agreed the news editor - "a few pars". I cannot recall whether the story ever saw the light of day, but a flicker of curiosity began to grow. How do abstract ideas ultimately shape our social and material world, and vice versa? What is the essential nature of this interaction? These were basic questions that launched me on an incredible journey, into a career in science journalism as well as university study and research, and took me to many different parts of the world. Of course, conclusive answers will remain elusive, but this book represents some effort to address fundamental questions concerning how human society coexists with the knowledge, and the great artefacts of that knowledge, that it alone creates.