音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.42]Passage 7. Knowledge and Progress

[00:03.71]Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?

[00:09.18]Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us

[00:14.76]and is becoming more and more manifest.

[00:17.49]Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality,

[00:23.40]it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.

[00:28.11]Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual

[00:34.23]could be communicated to another by means of speech.

[00:37.85]With the invention of writing， a great advance was made,

[00:41.89]for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.

[00:47.15]Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries:

[00:54.36]the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,

[00:58.09]which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.

[01:01.37]All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,

[01:06.40]the tempo was suddenly raised.

[01:08.26]Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.

[01:13.29]The trickle became a stream;

[01:16.14]the stream has now become a torrent.

[01:18.33]Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account.

[01:24.89]What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature,

[01:31.78]but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.

[01:35.72]The problem now facing humanity is:

[01:39.00]What is going to be done with all this knowledge?

[01:41.85]As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon

[01:46.77]which can be used equally for good or evil.

[01:50.05]It is now being used indifferently for both.

[01:53.23]Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird

[01:56.95]than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand,

[02:01.87]surgeons use it to restore them?

[02:03.95]We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge,

[02:10.29]with its ever-increasing power, continues.