Modern science has imposed upon humanity the necessity for
wandering. Its progressive thought and its progressive
technology make the transition through time, from generation
to generation, a true migration into uncharted seas of
adventure. The very benefit of wandering is that it is
dangerous and needs skill to avert evils. We must expect,
therefore, that the future will disclose dangers. It is
the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is
among the merits of science that it equips the future for
its duties. The prosperous middle classes, who ruled the
nineteenth century, placed an excessive value upon the
placidity of existence. They refused to face the necessities
for social reform imposed by the new industrial system,
and they are now refusing to face the necessities for
intellectual reform imposed by the new knowledge. The
middle class pessimism over the future of the world comes
from a confusion between civilization and security. In the
immediate future there will be less security than in the
immediate past, less stability. It must be admitted that
there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with
civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have
been unstable ages.
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1925)
