Optogenetics

Neat, isn't it? Science is learning more all the time. In fact, the process is still accelerating. This is how science progresses, and it's why we live in such a different world than our great-grandparents did. Without science, there would be no progress at all.

Even moral progress - the end of slavery, civil rights for women and racial minorities, the separation of church and state, etc. - probably wouldn't have happened without scientific and technological advancement. The invention of the horse collar probably did more to end slavery in much of the world than all the sermons in history (which, for the most part, supported the practice).

Admittedly, the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased the use of slaves, at least in the American South. Technology isn't a cure-all for every ill. But in general, it gives us the prosperity that's almost always a precursor to moral advances.

And science makes it harder to see the world through a biased lens. Researching human beings makes it more and more clear that we're all the same species - and that we have a connection to all other life on Earth, too.

At the very least, science makes our lives much easier and much longer than without it. Few of us risk starvation these days, at least in developed lands. And we don't lose most of our children before the age of five. If we're smart, the future will be better yet.

Will we be smart? Ah, that's the question.