PAX LUMINA Magazine - January 2023

In this issue

Jacob Bronowski, the chronicler of science, says the ability of human beings to oppose the thumb to the forefinger led to the first major step in human evolution. It simply means that the ability to hold and manipulate things led to the creation of tools with flint and iron initially, but later, with all sorts of matter and energy. Even at this stage, humans must have realized that these tools have another potential use, not a peaceful one, in the guise of protecting oneself and others. Initially, animals, then other humans, can be attacked and killed. This narrative continues even today. The tool is technology, the enemy is the other and the aim is the protection of the self and whatever is considered as one’s own, including a host of extended identities valuable to oneself, but abominable in others. One now wonders whether what Bronowski considered as the first step in ‘The Ascent of Man’ viz., the invention of technology contains the seeds of destruction of men and women, animals and plants, rivers and mountains, and all other existences. This is the question we hope to explore in this issue of Pax Lumina.