The Presumptions of Science

Abstract

Can there be "forbidden"--or, as I prefer, "inopportune" knowledge? Could there be knowledge, the possession of which, at a given time and stage of social development, would be inimical to human welfare-and even fatal to the further accumulation of knowledge? Could it be that just as the information latent in the genome of a developing organism must be revealed in an orderly pattern, else disaster ensue, so must our knowledge of the universe be acquired in a measured order, else disaster ensue?