Self and the world. Mind and the body. Spirit and the matter. Duality in any of the forms intrigues a thinking person. For a thinker, the natural question is whether this duality is real. Whence comes this question? French mathematician and science philosopher Henri Poincare, to a great extent may be considered as a liberated thinker, discussed this fundamental question in his books on hypothesis in science, and method and value of science [1].  Einstein, a thought personified, yet trapped in a fixed idea of a deterministic field theory, failed to resolve the wave-particle duality of light quantum [2]. A new twist to the dualism was given when computers as intelligent machines came into existence. In the mind-macine dichotomy the most important question became whether a copmuter can think [3]. Various kinds of tests were devised to distnguish a computer from a human brain/mind. Turing in 1950 discussed a test that envisages an expert to decide whether the performance of a computer can be distinguished  from that of a person with cognitive ability for specific tasks. Today the internet users do not realize the reversal of roles: a machine asks a person to prove that he / she is not a robot. Captcha is an acronym of Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Has smart phone not transaformed human beings to robots?  Ironically scientists in the so called  prestigious Universities and Institutions in Europe and US are responding to the crises in human society like robots.  COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the dark side of science and technology.

Science is the search of the truth: exploring scientific reality and the essence of the Universe.  Scientific knowledge used in technical applications and engineering  led to the advances in new technology.  Technology, in turn, helped advances in the pursuit of science.  Somewhere not only this complementary role got disturbed, high technology began corrupting science. First, it was in the form of weapon research specially during second world war. Fear and apprehension gripped the eminent scientists including Einstein who wrote a letter to the then US President Franklin Roosevelt on 2 August, 1939 that led to the establishment of the Manhattan Project for the nuclear weapons. Einstein states that it was his duty to make the recommendations that effectively meant the construction of the atom bomb in the background of perceived threat from Nazi Germany [4]. Later, Bertrand Russell and Einstein made an appeal in September, 1955 for the abolition of wars. The 1958 Vienna Declaration noted that, ‘The increasing material support which science now enjoys in many countries is mainly due to its importance , direct or indirect, to the military strength of the nation and its degree of success in the arms race’. Alas! Pious declarations and good wishes went in vain. I think, had scientific leadership stubbornly refused any deviation from the path of pure scientific truth not only the Hiroshima-Nagasaki  tragedy would have been avoided , the progress of science would have taken a different direction based on human values.

Inevitably, within few years we saw commercialization of scientific knowledge and emergence of perverted technology. The saying that the necessity is the mother of invention became obsolete. The by-product, outdated classified research, and so called spin-off technology was sold to corporations. Now the innovation was focused on market and consumers to create artifical necessities. I believe the development of consumerist society in US  was mainly the result of advanced technology marketed by MNCs [5]. Smart phone and information revolution are the prime examples of the perverted technology. In Physics Today, dedicated to 50 years of computers Brenner traces the beginning of information revolution to the year 1946 when ENIAC was commissioned [6]. It may be pointed out that this computer was developed as a part of second world war effort. Ironically Boole in 1854 laid the foundation of computers, i. e. the symbolic logic, in his work titled The Laws of Thought; he was a mystic too [3]. On the growth of mobile phones I refer to an informative article written in 2000 [7]. In the popular mind technology has become science, and science means power and money [8].

Much more damaging to science as compared to military/weapon science and technology was the TRIPS in GATT-1994 . Motivation for science became unlimited greed along with the lust for power.  Today funding, defence-oriented research and that controlled by MNCs, determine reasearch in science and technology. Academic freedom and independent research have almost vanished. Arthur in 1993 unwittingly highlighted the malaise [9] : “60 years ago in most universities, bringing in and managing research grants might have occupied only a few people. These functions now require a development department, legal department, sponsored-project office, dean-of-research office, grants accounting department, budget control office, naval research office, technology licensing office.” He adds that, ‘ In 1896 my own university, Stanford, had only 12 administrators. It is still leaner than most, yet now it has more administrators than the British had running India in the 1830s’.

Intellectual Property Rights in GATT-1994 lashed the biggest ever onslaught on science: funding agencies and corporations could become the owners of the knowledge. Subsequently big science, mega-projects and huge funding resulted into almost the destruction of true science [10]. To differentiate science from pseudo-science a statement on 20 March, 1999  was issued [11]. A key element in the statement is “independent testing and replication”. Let us examine Nobel Prize Physics works: Higgs bosons (2013), gravitational radiation (2017)  and black holes (2020). None of these discoveries can be independently tested and replicated:.  The Higgs boson was discovered at LHC, and there is no other laboratory in the world operating at the high energy scale comparable to LHC. I point out the MIT-SLAC experiment that led to quark model, and Nobel Prize was awarded to this work in 1990; it satisfied the scientific criterion to great extent. Then the doscovery of weak gauge bosons at CERN earned Nobel in 1984 but in contrast to MIT-SLAC it had questionable method of announcement. I refer to [12]. The discovery of Gravitational waves also assumes physical reality of black holes; the observed data is obtained from mega-projects and the interpretation is not uniquely decidable. Is it science or pseudo-science? Unfortunately the science establishment has become captive to money power. Individual conscientious scientists have remained just indifferent onlookers in this process of self-destruction. A feeble voice was raised in the report prepared by National Academies Policy Advisory Group, UK that was critical of patent plague and commercialization of science.

In contrast to physics, life-sciences, medicine and pharmacy, and agriculture have serious  limitations on the definitive and provable scientific research due to uncontrollable multitude of variables. Yet, their impact on life and society is much more direct and enormous, and for this reason they are  vulnerable to the sinister designs of MNCs. Added to this is the evil of biological warfare [4].  I have tried to address this issue in my recent book [13]. The readers are urged to ponder over following questions.  Is corporation controlled research responsioble for COVID-19 pandemic? Is this deadly virus designed in Wuhan laboratory to target specific genes, for example, that of whites? Is new strain of virus in UK a continuation of this agenda?  These questions arise because of two reasons. First, the impact of COVID is very small in China. Secondly,  the reported recovery rate in America is about 60 percent, about 50 percent in Europe, whereas in India it is more than 95 percent. There is no cure/medicine, therefore a rational/scientific explanation is necessary: Why experts have not addressed it? It may be reminded that even after decades we do not have HIV-AIDS vaccine. Would  COVID vaccine be manipulated by companies?  Would these unfortunate events stir the conscience of scientists? It may be recalled what Curie said:” There were no patents. We were working in the interest of science. Radium was not to enrich anyone. Radium is an element. It belongs to all people.”

To conclude the article I quote from my appeal to scientists [14]: “ Scientists and science academies/societies must re-affirm that search for truth(s) is the sole goal of science, and consequently individually or at organization level funding/support from military/commercial agencies will not be acceptable as a norm.” I think true science in modern science establishment has become almost extinct. In future dedicated individuals and small institutes like IONP  [15] hold promise for the enlightened pursuit of science: J. C. Bose and C. V. Raman have shown the value of small experiments and computer technolgy could be used for creating digital libraries in this endeavour, note that not even 0.001 percent research papers have real scientific value.  We may be on the path of re-discovering [16] the ancient wisdom.

REFERENCES [1] H. Poincare, The Foundations of Science (Scientific Press, 1946)

[2] Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, Edited by P. A. Schilpp (The Library of Living Philosophers, 1949)

[3] S. C. Tiwari, Time-Transcendence-Truth, ISBN 8-1752-5658-3 (lulu.com, 2006)

[4] The Atomic Age, Edited by M. Grodzins and E. Rabinowitch (Simon and Schuster, 1963)

[5] S. C. Tiwari, Role of technology and relevance of self reliance, Current Science, 66, 10 (1994)

[6] A. E. Brenner, Phys. Today 49, 24 (1996)

[7] K. Kalliojani, The rise and rise of the mobile phone, Phys. World, 13,(3), 33 (2000)

[8] D. Dickson, The New Politics of Science (University of Chicago Press, 1988)

[9] W. B. Arthur, Why do things become more complex?, Scientific American, 268(5), 144 (1993)

[10] S. C. Tiwari, Book Review, Contemporary Physics, 54, 72 (2013)