Hanging in the balance

There’s an old saying that paraphrases Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat: ‘‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.’’ Sir Peter Gluckman and Dr Mark Hanson include it in their new book, Ingenious: The Unintended Consequences of Human Innovation, which charts the 150,000 years of biological and cultural evolution that has made us such incredible innovators.

Since stepping down as the prime minister’s chief science adviser last year, Gluckman has been asking the big existential questions – Can we deal with climate change? Will artificial intelligence surpass us? Will superbugs wipe us out?

As he was advocating for evidence-based decision making and informed public debate, we saw the rise of anti-science, alternative facts and Trumpism. Our ability to find consensus on the important issues seems to be diminishing.

Hanson and Gluckman point out we have harnessed technology to develop while other species live much as they did 10,000 years ago.

Still, every innovation has unintended consequences. The coal powering our dark satanic mills of industry deposited the carbon in the atmosphere that is now dangerously warming the planet. Processing and preserving food created the energy-dense diet that is fuelling the obesity epidemic. Hygiene and antibiotics saved lives but the side effects have been antibiotic resistance and autoimmune diseases.

We’ve effectively run a series of live experiments throughout history and got away with it. The authors worry that now we face ‘‘runaway cultural evolution’’. The pace of change is so great, the problems so wicked, we risk blundering down a dead-end.

What’s the answer? Gluckman and Hanson want a better way of making trans-national decisions on whether innovations such as genetic modification and climate geo-engineering should be used.

They want informed discussion on sciencerelated issues, more respect for science, an education system that produces critical thinkers.

This will take time we may not have. History tells us that we will again need technology to solve the problems past technologies have created.

As the authors soberly put it: ‘‘In the balance hang our wellbeing, our social relationships, our health, our environment, our economies, our governments, and our planet.’’

We’ve effectively run a series of live experiments throughout history and got away with it.