"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"
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Sagan’s warning lands because it refuses the comforting myth that ignorance is harmless. He frames “science and technology” not as niche expertise but as the operating system of modern life, then points out the grim punchline: we’ve built a world run by tools most citizens can’t meaningfully question. The phrasing “arranged things” is doing quiet, devastating work. This isn’t a natural gap in knowledge; it’s structural. Education that treats science as memorization, media that prizes spectacle over explanation, politics that rewards certainty over curiosity, corporate incentives that hide complexity behind frictionless interfaces: a whole ecosystem designed to keep the machinery invisible.
Calling it a “prescription” is equally pointed. Disasters aren’t random here; they’re administered, dosage by dosage, through civic neglect. The line “we might get away with it for a while” nails the addict logic of technological societies: short-term convenience and profit can mask long-term fragility. Progress becomes a trust fall with no spotter.
“Combustible mixture of ignorance and power” is the core metaphor and the core fear. Power without understanding isn’t just inefficient; it’s volatile. It produces voters vulnerable to demagogues selling fake expertise, regulators outmatched by industries they can’t parse, and consumers nudged by systems they can’t audit. Written in the late Cold War and early digital age, it reads now like a prequel to algorithmic opacity, pandemic misinformation, and climate delayism. Sagan isn’t scolding individuals for not knowing enough; he’s indicting a culture that treats scientific literacy as optional while handing everyone matches.
Calling it a “prescription” is equally pointed. Disasters aren’t random here; they’re administered, dosage by dosage, through civic neglect. The line “we might get away with it for a while” nails the addict logic of technological societies: short-term convenience and profit can mask long-term fragility. Progress becomes a trust fall with no spotter.
“Combustible mixture of ignorance and power” is the core metaphor and the core fear. Power without understanding isn’t just inefficient; it’s volatile. It produces voters vulnerable to demagogues selling fake expertise, regulators outmatched by industries they can’t parse, and consumers nudged by systems they can’t audit. Written in the late Cold War and early digital age, it reads now like a prequel to algorithmic opacity, pandemic misinformation, and climate delayism. Sagan isn’t scolding individuals for not knowing enough; he’s indicting a culture that treats scientific literacy as optional while handing everyone matches.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995). The passage appears in Sagan's discussion of society's dependence on technology and the public's lack of scientific understanding. |
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