Letter

In response to The democratic danger of knowing more and understanding less

Knowing more, understanding less

Stewart Sweeney’s essay brings to mind Professor Carl Sagan’s warning in his book of some 30 years ago The Demon-Haunted World: “We’ve arranged a global civilisation in which most crucial elements – transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment, protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting – profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

Will AI be the straw that breaks our backs?

— Paul Vellacott from Ipswich, Qld