SCIENCE AND TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11085, 7 April 1933, Page 3

SCIENCE AND TOPICS

Will Modern Civilization Decline and Fall? HI'M.AX ADAPTARILITY.

What will he the ultimate effect on ■ mankind of our present civilisation? I Here is a question which has been • discussed on many occasions by

• Kcientists and doctors, and also by ; intelligent laymen who wonder whe--1 ther tlie mechanised marvels of this age of scienca will lead to a deterioration of the human body and of the human mind.

Looking into the history of the past we find that every great civilisation has failed to produce any perina.nent degree of happiness and comfort for the peoples of the world. The Greeks;, the Egyptions, and the Romans built great cities, evolved many fine forms of artificial amenities. and made life easier and more pleasant generally for human beings. But the result was the same in each instance. Human morale suffered. People became lazy, discontented, and degenerate. Then followed the decline and fall of civilised living and a return to primitive conditions. Xow in this, the greatest from of civilisation the world has ever known, we are not so concerned with the possibility of a decline and fall as with the problem of adapting ourselves to an ever-progressing civilised life.

There is also the problem of making the best use of all the marvellous aids to living which science has given us. Radio, for example, is not only a system which gives world-wide communication facilities and universal enjoyment during leisure hours. It has been found that listening-in can actually influence important changes in human abilities and physical senses.

Medical opinion attaches unusual importance to the well authenticated cure of a boy of bad (stuttering. The affliction has almost entirely disappeared since the boy’s parents installed a radio receiving set, and the expert view is that, so far from being a coincidence, the tAvo events are an instance of cause and effect. Various views have been expressed to explain this extraordinary cure, but the most generally accepted theory is that, in listening to speech in the radio programmes the boy sub-con-sciously ‘vocalises’ what he hears. In other words, he mentally repeats it, and so obtains valuable training in enunciation free of the self-conscious-ness which would be created by similar tuition from a living teacher. Stuttering is undoubtedly of nervous origin, and there seems to be a good deal of justification for the theory that radio may be even better than the best human teacher in circumventing the sufferers’ fear of his own defect. Another remarkable benefit of radio is the ability which it gives permanently deaf people to hear broadcast speech and music. There are many instances on record of deaf people being able to hear radio items perfectly by means of earphones connected to a conventional receiver. Usually the sense of hearing ie not completely restored, but in some obscure manner the defective organs are stimulated so that the sufferer can hear when broadcast items are reproduced.

People of normally good aural capacity can improve their sense of hearing by listening-in. A well developed “ear for music” is no longer a rarity now that so many people listen regularly to the radio music programmes. Even for those who have no knowledge of the technique of music radio provides an easy means of gaining a real understanding of musical appreciation. Some listeners who, before the introduction of popular broadcasting, could scarcely distinguish an oboe from a trumpet are now familiar with practically every musical instrument and with the musical compass of every section of an orchestra. So far as human adaptability is concerned, the exploits of airmen and racing motorists, and the experiences of the ordinary inhabitants of great cities show clearly that civilisation, with its new conditions and problems, has by no means exhausted the resources of mankind’s physical and mental equipment. Until recent months fears were expressed by eminent doctors and scientists that the noises of modern civilisation would undermine and probably destroy the nervous stability of town dwellers.

Now the view is very widely accepted that noise produces few harmful effects of a permanent nature. In fact, it seems probable that in future generations noise will he a necessary stimulant. Already it has been found that boys and girls to-day show definite characteristics which respond favourably to external noises of almost any description.

Investigations into the subject of industrial fatigue indicated that factory workers became easily tired and suffered in health because they were working daily in a noisy atmosphere. But no definite data could be produced to show the true extent of such harmful effects of noise, and it seems now that the suspected symptoms of fatigue and ill-health were really the outward signs of physical and mental changes required to adapt the humam body to now conditions. If proof were needed of human adaptability to noisy surroundings it could be provided adequately by the cotton factories where operatives practise a system of lip-reaing because they cannot hear themselves speak. In spite of the noise they are highly skilled and efficient workers. A doctor claims to have proved that the human ear is actually changing, He says that soon we shall be able to regulate our aural organs so that any unwanted noise is shut out. Mental control, after all, can influence the pulse-rate and facial expressions, and it is not improbable that by developing his mentality the average human being will he able to safeguard his physical organs and nervous characteristics against the i hazards of modern life.