quote · Legacy record
But now science is the belief system that is hundreds of years old. And, like the medieval system before it, science is starting not to fit the world any more. Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. Science can make pesticide, but cannot tell us not to use it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways---air, and water, and land---because of ungovernable science.
But now science is the belief system that is hundreds of years old. And, like the medieval system before it, science is starting not to fit the world any more. Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. Science can make pesticide, but cannot tell us not to use it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways---air, and water, and land---because of ungovernable science.
Approximate author period: c. 1975 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Michael Crichton
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1975 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1942 to 2008; Wikidata Q172140, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q172140 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 61401; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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