The most important aim of science ought to be to improve people’s lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Band 9 IELTS essay sample
Some people opine that improving people’s lives must be the primary objective of science. I fully agree with this view. Unfortunately, this is not always the direction that science takes.
Science has tremendously improved our lives in so many ways. It facilitated our journey from the caves to towns and cities. It enhanced our life expectancy and improved the overall quality of life. Life sciences, for instance, brought cures for several ailments that killed millions of people in the past. People now live longer and enjoy more comforts and amenities than their forefathers did a couple of centuries ago. Science also made distance irrelevant. We can now travel at the speed of sound. Communication technologies have made the world a global village. We can now stay connected with our friends and family round the clock regardless of where they live. Scientific innovations also caused trade and commerce to flourish and brought prosperity to large numbers of people. Hunger has almost vanished and even people living in undeveloped countries now have something to eat. None of these would have been possible without science.
Yet, the only focus of science was never improving people’s lives. If that was the case, science would not have developed weapons of mass destruction. Many countries are already in the process of developing biological weapons. The threat of nuclear war also looms large. So, obviously, in addition to improving people’s lives, science is also inventing things that can destroy humanity in an instant. Recently, many people have raised concerns regarding research and development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). While AI has the potential to improve our lives, it is liable to be misused. Also, some new technologies may make human workers redundant and cause large scale unemployment and unrest all over the world.
Personally, I believe that only those things that will benefit people and nature should be invented. If an invention has the potential to cause harm, its development must not be allowed. Countries should enact laws that ban harmful research. Before permitting research in a particular field, policy makers should weigh in the pros and cons and prevent research that has the potential to be misused.
In short, science has improved our lives in so many ways. It is also endangering our lives in some ways. In my opinion, harmful scientific research should never be encouraged as the primary objective of science should be improving people’s lives.
