Weakening Science Through Discourse

"And, yet, I know full well that this is not enough because, no matter what

we do, when we try to reconnect scientific objects with their aura, their

crown, their web of associations, when we accompany them back to their

gathering, we always appear to weaken them, not to strengthen their claim

to reality. I know, I know, we are acting with the best intentions in the world,

we want to add reality to scientific objects, but, inevitably, through a sort

of tragic bias, we seem always to be subtracting some bit from it." (237)

Throughout our coursework this semester we have been navigating the intricate "web of associations" to which Latour refers. Science is used to explain what we already know is, and uses language to do so. Let's use ADD as an example. Concerned parents begin to notice that their children are having a hard time concentrating for extended periods of time. A psychological condition is named and enters into circulation as language. If I had to explain the work we've done this semester to Mom, I would point out that a culture that would seek to label, diagnose and medicate an inattentive child might offer the best explanation for the very need to do so. We live in the age of speed, and science/technology is our best friend. Where there once were books, now there are videos. Where there once were slide-rules, now there are graphing calculators. Hell, even Kraft Mac-n-Cheese got faster in my lifetime. As science and technology expedite productivity in the industrialized world, we have come to expect more of people (both young and old) in less time. We have produced so much stuff - in the broadest sense of the word - that we now have to give our children amphetamines so they can keep up. Yet science lets us name a disorder rather than saying "your daydreaming kid isn't producing enough work during an 8-hour day of 4th grade (structured and regimented like a day at the office...) so lets just give him powerful medication that will speed his brain up."

Science is, essentially, the ordering and naming of things - less an act of discovery, but rather of explanation. By naming we end up with inevitable associations that come with language. In this course we have literally mapped these associations. We need the language of science but the real stuff of science doesn't need us and never has.