Descartes had a vision that science would provide humans with what they needed to live life easier, and provide us a defense against nature. He believed that science would provide us with relief from those things which inconvenience us. This was a a promise of better life, but he did not evaluate how it could affect us otherwise.
The vision was that science would provide us with such things as medicine as a defense against disease, infections, and ultimately death. These things seemed promising to him, but what he did not see was the negatives of this. For example, the development of stronger strains of bacteria, in response to medicines that once threatened such bacteria. In such cases, was Descartes vision a great promise? His vision provided that science would allow us to cool ourselves from heat and warm ourselves when cold. However, his vision did not include the loss of resources providing such conveniences.
English: René Descartes, the French philosopher, ...
René Descartes at work
Portrait of René Descartes, dubbed the "Father of...So ultimately science would be robbing us of the conveniences that were such a great promise.
Descartes vision of great promise in science was promising and still is in that these things that protect us from death, heat, cold, rain, and enemies are convenient, and do provide us the protection needed from nature. However, one must be skeptical of such a vision when realizing such a promise could be just as much a disaster as a convience.
English: Queen Christina of Sweden (left) and RenÃ...
English: Handwritten_letter_by_Descartes_December_...
Ashes of Descartes, at Saint-Germain des Pres. Par...