HUMA 1905 : Verne-Fruchter -The Worship of Science.doc
20 Apr 2014
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In the early 19th century mary shelley wrote frankenstein. 50 years later jules verne wrote numerous best-sellers predicting travel under the sea, in the air -- even space travel. For one thing, after the scientific revolution gave rise to the industrial and technological revolutions, there was tremendous transformation in every sphere of human life as the industrial revolution progressed. In 1818 the dickensian miseries of the earlier industrial revolution still loomed large. In 1818 shelley hadn"t yet seen how, after 1850, developments in steamships, railroads, internal combustion and electrical power generation began bringing about great improvements in peoples" standards of living, life expectancy -- and tremendous optimism concerning science and technology. By 1865, verne could see how steel, electricity, the internal combustion engine, the telegraph, the telephone and railroads were transforming human life and western society as a whole. Something deeper than mere optimism about science & technology. Something without which there could have been no scientific and industrial revolutions.
