Just as Gregor Sleeper was marginalized when he was turned into a worm in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, we will examine the marginalization of non-monetized science and technology in modern society and discuss the need for institutional measures and awareness changes to address this issue.
One morning, Gregor wakes up from a nightmare and realizes that he has turned into a large worm in his bed. This is the first line of Kafka’s novel The Metamorphosis. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is famous for its themes of human alienation. But this sentence made me think otherwise. “Isn’t the bug in the bed a piece of technology?” I wondered. I considered that the main character, Gregor, symbolizes science and technology.
The plot of the novel is simple. Before his transformation into a bug, Gregor was a pillar of the family, living a hard life as a seller for his family. One morning, he wakes up from a nightmare and finds himself transformed into a single bug, and from then on, he is seen as something completely different by his family. Once indispensable to the family, he is marginalized by them and eventually starved to death by them. Although Kafka was trying to talk about human alienation through The Metamorphosis, I thought of the alienation of science and technology through this novel.
I’m not sure if the term ‘science and technology alienation’ exists. I looked up the word in the dictionary, but it didn’t exist, but I thought it was the most appropriate word to express what I was thinking, so I used it. The term “science and technology marginalization” does not mean that science and technology are out of reach. If the subject of marginalization is human beings, the subject of marginalization in this context is science and technology itself. In other words, the marginalization of science and technology means that science and technology itself is marginalized.
What was the hottest topic in science and technology in 2005? No matter what anyone says, the answer is stem cells by Professor Woo-Seok Hwang. When Professor Hwang’s article and paper on his success in cloning stem cells was first published in Nature, the world, including Korea, paid attention to him. However, when it was discovered that the paper had been falsified, somatic cell cloning technology was marginalized. It was as if somatic cell cloning technology woke up one morning and realized that it had turned into a giant worm in its bed. The bug in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, perhaps, symbolizes science and technology.
Why was Gregor the Worm ostracized by his family? It’s not just because of his disfigurement; Gregor was ostracized because he was transformed from a well-paid merchant into an incompetent worm. People are also marginalized by society and family when they are deemed incapable. This is the human alienation that Kafka wanted to talk about through The Metamorphosis. In the current society, the criteria for judging incompetence is increasingly determined by wealth and money. In the current society, people who do not earn money are treated as incapable. This leads to human marginalization. The same is true for science and technology. People think, “We don’t need science and technology that doesn’t make money,” and “Science and technology that makes money is good science and technology.” In other words, science and technology are also marginalized.
There is an article that appears every December 10th. Every December 10th, there is an article that appears on the topic of “Why Korea doesn’t have a Nobel Prize”. The conclusion is the same every time. “Because the government and companies only invest in science and technology that is profitable.” In many universities and research institutes, money is the first consideration when deciding on a research topic. Whether the research will be profitable or funded is the most important factor in choosing a topic. In this process, research that does not make money is treated like a bug and marginalized.
The novel ‘The Little Ball Thrown by the Dwarf’ by Josehee Choi and the play ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller have talked a lot about the phenomenon of human marginalization. There are various ways to solve human alienation. There have been many institutional and ideological discussions about strengthening the role of the family, establishing policy mechanisms, and addressing the limitations of being judged solely by economic ability. While much has been said about the marginalization of science and technology by humans, little has been said about the marginalization of science and technology itself. It is only mentioned briefly in the news or newspapers when South Korea is excluded from the Nobel Prize every year.
So how can we address the marginalization of science and technology? The first way is to introduce an institutional device called tenure. Tenure, which originated in the United States in the 19th century, is a system that supports professors working in underrepresented fields and guarantees them a job and autonomy for life. Young professors work hard for tenure, and it allows them to pursue research in lesser-known fields without being tied down by money. Although tenure is currently under debate, I believe that a partial tenure system is necessary to prevent the marginalization of science and technology.
The second way is to increase government and corporate support for unpopular fields. If there is more support for marginalized science and technology, research in marginalized science and technology will be actively conducted. As a result, the phenomenon of marginalization of science and technology by money will decrease. How can we increase support for unpopular fields? It is natural for companies and governments to support science and technology that is profitable, but how can they also support science and technology that is not profitable? Here I propose a funding approach: donations. It is to support non-mainstream science and technology in the form of donations. Since it is in the form of a donation, it is not a risky investment for the donor. Such an institutional arrangement would enable financial support for non-mainstream research.
We have discussed how to address the marginalization of science and technology through institutional mechanisms such as tenure and endowment funding. With these institutional mechanisms in place, the marginalization of science and technology by money will decrease. However, in order to solve the ultimate marginalization, a change in perception is necessary first. A basic way to address human alienation is to increase interest in the world around us. Similarly, people need to be interested in science and technology. We need to be interested in science and technology for its own sake, not just because it makes money. Gregor Zamora was a member of a family who cared about his sister’s future and the future of his family, both before and after his transformation. The same goes for science and technology. Whether it’s the pre-transformation Gregor Zamora or the bug-turned-Gregor Zamora, it’s still a necessary part of our society. Just like Gregor Zamza, who was marginalized by his family simply because he couldn’t afford it, a lot of science and technology is languishing in a corner.
