I'm not saying we can't know a lot, I'm not saying that basic research can't be useful or isn't interesting.

I am saying that we are approaching the time where we will or do not have the wisdom to handle the fruits of our knowledge and where we do not need to accumulate any more. Now, we will accumulate more, we will continue to misuse it, and it will eventually lead to our demise as a species, along with a number of other, innocent, species.

Look at the internal combustion engine. Tremendous things have been accomplished with it. And tremendous destruction. And now global warming, which could well directly and indirectly lead to the extinction of 'Homo Sapiens Sapiens'.

So, was the intelligence which led to the internal combustion engine a good thing or a bad thing or simply just the way it goes? Should resources have been devoted to enhancing a sense of duty to each other, instead of every person and nation grabbing everything for himself and the hell with the rest of the world?

What good is knowing more than we need to live if it's used to destroy? Do we want to be a successful species, survival being the most important indicator of that, or the more knowledgeable in the brief time we are around?

I vote for more energy and education going into developing empathy, consciences, wisdom in each other rather than the development of technologies which are prone to misuse. I don't see how anyone can argue with that.