The Science Myth. Illustrated by Michael Ffolkes

by Magnus Pyke

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Anaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing Like science slaves unaware?

[Matt C.]

A really fantastic (but obscure and out of print) book on the perils of science and technology. The author uses the metaphor of Procrustes and his bed that travelers were gruesomely forced to fit, instead of the other way around, and draws a comparison to modern day technologies trapping us in living a certain way. The author's main point, which took me a while to digest, is: Have the advances in science and technology over the past several hundred years allowed us to work less and enjoy more of the "good life"? Or are we trapped in a cycle where we work ever harder to increase our creature comforts and raise our standard of living at the expense of happiness?

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceedingly prescient work investigating the societal forces that work to make the citizens of industrialized nations indistinguishable through forced conformity.

[Aarjun Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book now out of print and not generally available, which is a shame and a indicative of our society, that being said, the book has a brilliant message which is subtle, which is the ever racing towards technology to solve our problems ( mostly perceived in my opinion) the first few pages give a very good outline and lay of the land of both the book and premise, the book I have had since 2003 I have read several times, each time I have gleaned something different, it has shown me the correlation between the past and the present time, the technology is better, but is it in line with our betterment as a individual or our species, this is more evident in chapter 9, the book is a must for all readers, especially a S.T.E.M degree holder, it is in my opinion reading a book like this is like unlearning junk or indoctrination by the so called education system, which concentrates on memorising information and regurgitating it on demand, rather than to learn how to think ( the classical Education) then to be given information, so you have information then you can use it to draw ideas or to have a conclusion on said matter, section / chapter 10 is a drawing of ideas, but it is subtle and opaque, given the fact it is years old (1962) it shows the education system in the uk has changed from that time to the time I was at school in the mid 80's and now, the education system is watered down, it can be seen that where the british education was exported to india and Singapore for example, that educational standards are the highest and the uk, they are low, that being said, the author has a canny insight into the modern world, interjecting and asking the question: is this technology for our betterment? which is a very good question in regards to modernity.

P.s I apologise for the dense text and tangents, its a advantage in S.T.E.M fields but less so in this context.





we as a society in 2017 have given the faceless people in their respective sectors all the power, in regards to the direction of travel, where profit is a key, we have our lives, busy, etc, but, we do as a detriment to ourselves and to society in general a single person can make a difference,