The crisis in science: progress, stagnation, and revolution

Before you can change the world, you have to understand it.

That’s why, in October, dozens of communists gathered in Halifax, Quebec City, and Vancouver for a weekend of presentations and discussion aimed at deepening their understanding of Marxist theory.

The history of science is that of humanity’s quest to understand the workings of the universe, free from mysticism and supernatural forces. In this article, Adam Booth explores the revolutionary process by which scientific ideas advance, the link between developments in science and wider society, and the crisis of science under capitalism today.

Over the last few weeks, Trump has been brazenly ratcheting up tensions with Venezuela. Having declared its president, Maduro, the leader of a drug cartel, he has moved a tenth of America’s navy and B-52 bombers to menace the country. Hot off making ‘peace’ in Gaza, Trump seems to be headed straight towards a new war. 

In the early hours of 20 October, a simple error disrupted the operations of a data centre hub for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Northern Virginia. The ripple effect over the next few hours caused global outages to services as diverse as banking and real-time trading, tools for office management, social media, and even advanced manufacturing.