
Science and Technology
Is world peace possible?
We have witnessed fewer and fewer wars between countries since 1945, and so there is no reason to doubt that they could disappear like other horrifying acts.
We have witnessed fewer and fewer wars between countries since 1945, and so there is no reason to doubt that they could disappear like other horrifying acts.
Searching for a cure to violence
Set phasers to... none
Psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker at Harvard University thinks it is completely conceivable that wars between countries might go the way of slave auctions, debtors’ prisons and other barbaric customs.
He argues that while there is plenty of violence around the world, and more ways of killing each other, we have witnessed fewer and fewer wars between countries since 1945. Not only, is war is at an all-time low, rates of homicide are far lower than they were in the Middle Ages, and issues like domestic violence are no longer seen as being acceptable.
At the recent Singularity Summit in San Francisco, he told BBC Future about how we are predisposed to be violent but how we are also predisposed to be peaceful.
There are some parts to the brain that impel us to carry out violence, such as the thirst for revenge, feelings of tribalism, or the quest for dominance. But packed into the same skull there are motives that inhibit us from violence, like empathy and reason that allow us to see violence as a problem to be solved instead of a contest to be won.
MORE from Science and Technology
Popular Entrance Exams after Class 12: Which one will you take?
IIT-Bombay students add ISRO feather to their cap!
BIOTECHNOLOGY: Technology that Modifies Biology
- Education Franchisee opportunity
- NCERT Solution
- CBSE Class 9 Mathematics
- NCERT Solutions for class 10 Science
- Sample Papers
- CBSE Class 9 Science
- NCERT Solutions for class 10 Maths
- Revision Notes
- CBSE Class 10 Hindi
- CBSE Class 10 English
- CBSE Class 10 English
- CBSE Class 10 Social Studies
- CBSE Class 10 Science
- CBSE Class 10 Mathematics
- Career In Science After 10
- Career In Commerce After 10
- Career In Humanities/Arts After 10
- Ncert Solutions for Class 10
- Ncert Solutions for Class 11
- Business Studies Class 12 CBSE project