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are like Ravi, do not feel shy and smother the feeling of curiosity within you. Find out foryourself more about the inner part of life.35. What Does Progress Mean?Has man really progressed from ancient times up till now? What does progress mean?What does civilisation mean?Think about this. If you read the story of man over the ages there has, of course, beentremendous change in the way he lives and works. Think of early man as a hunter, wildand naked, to whom hunting was a way of life, or of the shepherd who grazed his sheepin pastures green, and think of modern man and his way of life today, particularly in anindustrialised society where he enjoys the fruits of his ingenuity and invention. Surely,that is progress at one level.Contrast the life of the early farmer who settled in small communities and used simpletools for growing his food with the highly mechanised farms. They use the tools oftechnology today to produce high yields of crops from the same earth. Consider also theway machines have helped man toil less and save labour and sweat. Think of the clothesman has woven over the ages. From the hand spun cloth, from the spinning wheel to themodern textile industry that produces bales of cotton or synthetics. Houses of mud andclay to skyscrapers, offices, factories, and a myriad buildings baffling the eye. Food,clothes, shelter have all changed from ancient time till now after century upon century ofprogress.What is progress then? Is it the evolution of man’s mind and capacities, the growth ofhis capacity to adapt to environment making himself its master rather than its slave?Look at another side of his growth, his conquest of space and time. The story is one ofsteady achievement, from the bullock cart to the jet plane; from pigeons that carriedletters to satellites that convey messages instantly; from the box camera to the televisionand video-conferencing by which people can hold conferences viewing each other fromdistant towns. Consider also man’s exploration into outer space and the marvels of spacetechnology, man’s landing on the silver moon of yester years, man’s probe into otherplanets, the extraordinary sophistication of man’s genius in mastering the technology ofannihilating time and space. You can find out about many more such examples of howman has delved into the secrets of nature.Biology was a simple science once, but with the discovery of the DNA a whole newvista has opened up. Man today can produce life in a test tube! Genetic engineeringteaches him even to alter those states of life. The marvels of bio-technology are about tobloom. Is man master now not only of space and time but of his own evolution as aspecies? Discuss this and find out more about the wonders of biological science. Nolonger does it mean cutting up frogs and cockroaches. It is a new window upon man’s lifeon earth, even as its sister science, medicine, has made gigantic leaps, particularly in thefield of surgery. Think of heart transplantations, brain operations, neurosurgery and thecombating of serious diseases like tuberculosis or cancer.Another amazing discovery is the computer which can do practically all the functionsof the brain and with greater precision and correctness. Man need not carry loads ofinformation in the brain anymore, for the computer is his most reliable bank. Man need