ABSTRACT

Tm inBuence of science upon the everyday life of ordinary men and women is already profound, but is likely to become much more so in the not very distant future. Science is gradually transforming social life in ways which call for new forms of society, and which demand new qualities in eminent citizens. Apart from all detail, the two chief changes that are being brought about by science are the increased importance of experts and the more organic character of human society. Of these two the first, namely, the importance of experts, is more obvious than the other. Nevertheless a few words must be said about it, since it is making effective democracy increasingly difficult. All the everyday apparatus of modern urban life-power stations, electric trains, telephones, electric light, etc.-involves scientific knowledge possessed by only a small minority of the population. By killing off a suitably selected I per cent of any modern nation, its present mode of life could be made impossible. In matters more directly concerned with government, the same thing is true in an even higher degree. The art of war, although it still requires soldiers, depends much more upon the scientific inventor than upon the man who risks his life in the face of the enemy.