The Human Condition: Reality, Science and History

Evolution has produced an incomplete miracle: Homo, a species that can love, think, remember, talk, gain insight into reality, plan for the future, and produce amazing scientific knowledge and art. Unfortunately Homo still suffers from dismal weaknesses and is not yet wise enough to protect its species from ultimate demise.

To become wiser, humanity cannot count on natural selection or a revolution. Social and political institutions depend on a system of education that is imperfect. Economic development, while remarkable, is neither steady nor equitable. Technological development is often blind and burdened with unintended consequences. History is chaotic at both the national and international levels. Representative democracy, the best system of government we have invented, is fragile, vulnerable and often subject to paralysis.

Gregory A. Loew is an Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He was born in Vienna, Austria and grew up in Paris, France and Buenos Aires, Argentina. After getting his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, he spent his career of fifty years at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where he was involved in the original construction and start-up of the two-mile-long linear electron accelerator. He later participated in many other projects and international collaborations with particle physics centers in Europe, Russia, Japan, China, and Latin America. Eventually he became Deputy Director of the laboratory for about five years.

In parallel with his physics activities, Loew created a seminar at Stanford University on "The Causes of War," which he taught for over ten years. This course covered many aspects of human behavior, including psychology, anthropology, economics, history, law, international relations, and arms control.