Mankind to Mars
September 17, 2015
Laurence: This is a perfect example of what Jacques Ellul was so critical, namely, the “technological imperative” (i.e., if something could be done it should be done). I first encountered this kind of madness at an academic conference in 1965. To get a sense of how committed members of the technologists were to their religion, I posed this hypothetical to one of them: “suppose astrophysicists should inform us that it would be possible to reverse the orbit of Jupiter. Should a governmental program be undertaken to bring that about?” With all sincerity, he responded “yes.”
Butler Shaffer was Professor Emeritus at Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938, Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival, and Boundaries of Order. His latest book is The Wizards of Ozymandias.
Robert Kuttner Rewritten