Looking into the long history of human technological development, where did it come from?

In China, people's pursuit of science and technology has always accompanied the process of China's modernization. In recent years, science and technology have become a hot topic of concern to the whole nation. Of course, this is directly related to the new stage of China's economic development. In 2018, China's per capita GDP (gross domestic product) reached nearly 10,000 US dollars. If China's economy wants to break through the middle-income trap and achieve sustainable development, it can only rely on innovation, and innovation is inseparable from science and technology. This has become a consensus. This is the logic of the current national science and technology boom.

However, the history of technological evolution is not just about economic logic. How did human scientific discoveries and technological inventions evolve? Where did they come from and where are they going? These questions are usually not discussed in professional courses and textbooks, because professional courses and textbooks mainly teach the results of science and technology, not the causes and processes, let alone the overall review of the history of science and technology. Speaking of this issue, I highly recommend Dr. Wu Jun's new book "A Global History of Science and Technology", which helps us think about the past and future of science and technology from a historical perspective.

Reading the history of science and technology is not just reviewing the knowledge points in high school and college courses. The history of science and technology attempts to connect the dots and depict a picture of the evolution of human science and technology that is both consistent with historical facts and has historical logic. The Global History of Science and Technology successfully depicts a picture of the evolution of human science and technology. It helps us see the general context and main lines of the evolution of science and technology history, which is often not necessarily perceived and grasped by people, even experts in a certain field.

First, we need to gain a sense of history in science and technology. The significance of gaining a sense of history is that we will be inspired by history when dealing with current events, have a different understanding of current events, and gain a new perspective from history. For example, today we are amazed at the rapid development of the Internet, and we have infinite hope for the potential functions of artificial intelligence. It is easy for us to think that these are unprecedented. After understanding the history of science and technology, you will have a new sigh for history and think more about today's technology.

For example, you will be shocked by the invention of the telegraph (the first telegram sent from Washington to Baltimore), because it was the first time that humans made general information spread faster than people (or horses). You will also be amazed at the widespread impact of the invention of electricity. Without electricity, there would be no elevators and high-rise buildings. Mobile phones as information transmission tools are an extension of telegraphs and telephones. Whether artificial intelligence can have a similar or even greater impact on human civilization like electricity can only be appreciated and evaluated in history.

We are accustomed to using the word "technology", and it may be used more frequently than the word science. Science and technology are inseparable, but there are also differences between them. Science is about discovering the laws of nature, and technology is about inventions that are useful for transforming the world. In modern times, in order to catch up with the West, China has focused on technology and engineering, because only engineering and technology can directly bring about economic prosperity and military strength. In most cases, our interest in science comes from the driving force of science on technology.

In fact, this is not only the case now, but also during the Westernization Movement more than a hundred years ago. Although this utilitarian orientation provides a strong and main motivation for the whole nation to learn science and technology, looking at the history of the development of science and technology, we find that this motivation is only one aspect, not all. Recognizing the relationship and difference between science and technology is another inspiration we get from reading the history of science and technology.

There are different historical periods for the development of science and technology: there are periods of pure scientific development (ancient Greece), periods of pure technological development (ancient China), periods of technological development based on science (Industrial Revolution period), and periods of intertwined development of science and technology (today).

One significance of distinguishing science and technology is to help us realize the difference between utilitarianism and non-utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is for survival and development. Since technology is mostly for survival and development, technology is utilitarian. But science is not necessarily. On the one hand, science can be used to promote the development of technology, so science has a utilitarian side. Our worship of science is largely due to the utilitarian side. On the other hand, science also has a non-utilitarian side. Science is for human beings to understand the universe and themselves.

One hundred years ago in April 1918, Einstein gave a famous speech at Planck's 60th birthday celebration held by the Berlin Physical Society. In this speech entitled "The Motivation of Exploration", he said: There are all kinds of people in the temple of science, and their motivations for exploring science are different. Some are for intellectual pleasure, and some are for purely utilitarian purposes. They have made great or even major contributions to the construction of the temple of science. But the foundation of the temple of science depends on another kind of people. They always want to draw a simplified and easy-to-understand picture of the world in the most appropriate way. Their daily efforts do not come from well-thought-out intentions or plans, but directly from passion.

A prominent problem that currently affects the cultivation of creative talents in China is the widespread short-term utilitarianism, which is specifically manifested in the impetuous mentality and exaggerated environment of pursuing quick success and instant benefits and short-term effects. Individuals and society want to have an "immediate" effect in innovation, that is, to stick a pole in the sun and immediately see the shadow. Various evaluation mechanisms mostly reward measurable and quantifiable results, but creative and long-term results are often difficult to measure and quantify. Short-term utilitarianism is also the deep-seated reason for the "homogeneity" in innovation and the "herd effect" in entrepreneurship.

The reason why we lack creative talents, in addition to the problem of knowledge structure and lack of curiosity and imagination, is that we are too eager for quick success and too utilitarian in our values. The mentality of rushing for quick results and the value of success or failure lead to plagiarism and copying, and it is unlikely that there will be real innovation, let alone disruptive innovation and revolutionary innovation.

In sharp contrast, the other extreme is ancient Greece, the birthplace of science. The emergence of ancient Greek philosophy and science was based purely on people's confusion and curiosity about natural and social phenomena, as well as their own ignorance. In ancient Greece, the pursuit of knowledge was not for practical purposes, but to get rid of ignorance and seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

It was the pure love for wisdom, the complete non-utilitarianism and the value orientation of not pursuing any useful returns of ancient Greece that made its brilliant philosophy and science. Of course, the situation in modern society is different from that in ancient Greece, but we can still be inspired by history.

Almost all revolutionary scientific discoveries were made not out of utilitarianism, but to satisfy people’s curiosity. Some discoveries were very useful later, while others are still useless. Maybe they will be useful in the future, or maybe they will never be useful. But without these discoveries, there would be no human civilization today.

We all know that Isaac Newton (1642-1726) played a fundamental role in modern science. But Newton said that he was standing on the shoulders of giants. This giant was Descartes, who proposed the scientific methodology. Descartes not only influenced Newton, but also has influenced him to this day, which shows that inspiration is the importance of scientific methodology in scientific discovery and technological invention.

The starting point of scientific methodology is "doubt everything". Marx also took "doubt everything" as his motto. Wu Jun summarized Descartes' scientific methodology into five points:

1. Ask questions;

2. Conduct the test;

3. Draw conclusions from the experiment and explain them;

4. Generalize the conclusions;

5. Find new problems.

The difference between modern science and ancient science (ancient Greece) is the emphasis on experiments. The premise of experiments is to ask good questions, and its starting point is to doubt everything. This kind of scientific methodology is what we call critical thinking today, which is very lacking in China's education. Students who come out of our education system can answer difficult questions, but they can't ask good questions. They dare not doubt psychologically and are not good at doubting in terms of methods. Without scientific methodology, there would be no science and technology today. This is the logic of the history of science and technology, and it has practical significance for China today.

When I was the dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University (2006-2018), I focused on promoting general education in undergraduate education. General education generally introduces courses in the humanities and social sciences. I did the same, but in addition, I also actively promoted the reform of natural science courses. One of the measures was to open two new courses - "A Brief History of Physics" and "A Brief History of Life Sciences".