In 1997, I managed to get a copy of the book "Limits to Growth", which was publi

shed in 1972, ...I knew the basic ideas contained in this book, by reading about
it in previous years, .. but there was a very important idea,which I didn't exp
ect to find it there,...the idea did not receive the attention it deserves ,...i
t a warning from the authors (mostly technical scientists),from putting hope tha
t the technological advances that can come in the future,may resolve the serious
problems threatening the world.
Perhaps the reasons behind the neglect of this very important idea,were two reas
ons, ... First, it is a terrifying idea, .. all the hopes of saving civilization
, centered on the ability of new technology to do the job, ... and the second re
ason is that the Club of Rome (the group who issued a book),did not give strong
evidence to confirming it.
This idea is one of the most difficult philosophical questions,and it is central
to the issue of the collapse of modern civilization ... probably the Club of Ro
me based their expectations on some simple assumptions, such as, the probability
of failure to achieve the saving technological developments,in time, given the
expected imminence of the collapse, ... but if we wanted this idea to be establi
shed on strong theoretical bases, it is inevitable to go into the depths of phil
osophy.
I do not want to go, in this book, in the depth of this difficult subject, ... b
ut I will try to simplify the idea, so that the interested reader, would find th
e basis for researches.
Technology is the application of the laws of the theory in science, .. and there
fore, if we want to answer the question: "What are the limits of technology ?",.
. we must first answer the question:" What are the limits of science? ".
Scientists in the field of theoretical physicists were trying,for many decades,t
o reach a theory they call ,..." theory of all forces".. or " theory of everythi
ng ",...one of the famous scientists known for their dedication to this attempt,
was Albert Einstein,...these attempts means implicitly assume that there are lim
its to the theoretical knowledge, ... but theoretical physicists,did not often d
epend on philosophical basis to support this trend,and most of these attempts we
re established only on the personal perceptions of the possibility of achieving
this ambitious goal, ...these attempts remain incomplete, .. and the history of
science gives us examples of the stages of previous science, where scientists th
ought they had already reached these final limits of science,maybe the most famo
us of these historical stages was the stage in the end of the nineteenth century
, after Max well's theory of the electromagnetic waves, and before the explosion
of the ideas of quantum and relativity,at the beginning of the twentieth centur
y.
But philosophical thinking takes another course, ...the Dialectical materialism
of the Marxism confirms that there are no limits to science, ..and in this trend
it is followed by most modern philosophies.
It is very important to note that the introduction of the idea of infinite knowl
edge,in fact, does not solve the problem of an imminent collapse of civilization
,but only puts it in a different form, ... The saving technological achievements
,which are still needed very soon,if brought in tremendous intensity,the result
will be that the question will change from "the collapse of civilization" ... to
"the collapse of the image that we know,or that we can imagine for civilization
",...and this result does not differ,in fact, from the previous one,as it,in bot
h cases,all things related to our current life,will end,.....the validity of thi
s result,was approved by the American thinker Francis Fukuyama,in 1993,..the cre
dit for the courage,where the idea was incompatible with his famous idea of the
"end of history", which was in the height of popularity at that time.
On the other hand, the adoption of the idea of limited knowledge,certainly,settl
e the issue in favor of the idea of the collapse of civilization.