science and invention a continuous danger to humanity

(Written by Ebuka Daniel)

            Naturally humans invent things to make living more comfortable and easy, some of these inventions are either automated or manually designed to assist in everyday working activities. Science has been in existence even from the creation of man, some say science is a higher form of sorcery or magic. Despite all the useful and helpful inventions, there are some of the same inventions that leads to the loss of lives and properties, these inventions include; guns, atomic bomb, missiles, hand grenades, and so on. Science has driven this world in chaos where every country wants to own the largest nuclear arm, and even get involved in nuclear programs, which leads to more deaths than any natural disaster. The existence of humanity has always being in continuous danger as a result of these same inventions used as a means to attack another country, or to defend yourself from external attacks, and all cases leads to the massacre of millions of people.

            In the 9^th century gunpowder was discovered by Chinese alchemists who were searching for an elixir of immortality. Also known as Black powder, gunpowder was used by the Chinese military as fire lances, fire arrows, and cannon bombs and was first used in warfare about 904 AD. Gunpowder was also used in the war against Native Americans, and has directly or indirectly caused the death of millions of people in the past and also present, in the sense that gunpowder is used to make atomic bomb and is one of the main component in modern day guns and hand grenades. At about 1000 AD after the discovery of black powder, the first device that looks like a gun was invented by the Chinese. This device is a bamboo tube that uses gunpowder to project flames, spears, and metal shrapnel at their targets. Cannons appeared in Italy around 1320, where they were modified as European nations waged many wars against each other, killing millions of civilians and soldiers in their wake.

            In the late 15^th century the Ottoman Empire used firearms as part of its regular infantry. The first successful rapid-fire firearm is the Gatling gun, invented by Richard Gatling and fielded by the union forces during the American civil war in the 1860s. One of the major advancements was the Puckle gun. In 1718, James Puckle of London demonstrated his new invention, the “Puckle Gun,” a tripod-mounted, single-barreled flintlock gun fitted with a multi-shot revolving cylinder. The weapon fired nine shots per minute at a time when the standard soldier’s musket could be loaded and fired but three times per minute. The ‘Puckle Gun,” however, failed to attract investors and never achieved mass production or sales to the British armed forces. Of the advances that followed, the invention and development of revolvers, rifles, machine guns and silencers were among the most significant. Here’s a brief chronology of how they evolved.

1.     Revolvers

Samuel colt invented the first revolver, named after its revolving cylinder. He was issued a U.S. patent in 1836 for the colt firearm equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets with an innovative cocking device.

2.     Rifles

·        The breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.

·         John Moses Browning was the prolific gun designer who invented the Winchester rifle, the pump shotgun, and the colt 45 automatic. He was the first to invent the slide, which enclosed the barrel of a pistol and the firing mechanism.

·        Canadian John Garand invented the M1 semi-automatic rifle in 1934.

·        The development of assault rifles started during World War 11, beginning with the German Sturmgewehr, the first rifle that could fire a medium size bullet at high rates of fire. In response the U.S. military began developing their own assault rifles, which resulted in the M16 assault rifle, and was designed by Eugene Stoner.

·        The 1941 Johnson Model rifle one of the most innovative rifles of its time period. The Johnson rifle was invented by Melvin M. Johnson Jr.

3.     Machine Guns

·        Hiram Maxim invented the Maxim machine gun and the Maxim silencer in 1881.

·        The Thompson sub-machine gun was invented by General John T. Thompson. It was the first handheld machine gun. Thompson was driven by the thought of creating a handheld machine gun that would help end the First World War

What is the purpose of a gun?

The purpose of a gun, if we’re being honest is to kill something, it is a tool that has enough power, when used properly (and very often improperly) to kill animals or in most cases humans. With a gun you can hit your target from distance away without being spotted. Since the invention of guns there has been lots of gun related deaths in millions, either by means of wars, or by means of gun violence.

            Science and invention has over-time proven to be a continuous danger to humanity as more and more, different new inventions are being developed for the aim of conquest, over powering, protecting, and terrorizing. Throughout history lives that has been lost in the hands of these so called inventions. Subsequently some inventions were developed to aid in the various means of transportation, the air, land, and sea respectively were means of conveying people, goods, and services from one place to another until they were weaponized and manipulated for the purpose of war, another means to quickly kill and destroy lives and properties. The advancement of technology lead to more destruction, technologies such as; the atomic bomb, missiles, war ships and planes, submarines, rocket launchers, jet fighters, missile guided destroyer ships, and lots more. The main purpose for all these inventions is to kill and destroy more enemies’ lives and properties, and the death toll for each of the inventions had always been devastating and catastrophic. Since the discovery of gunpowder in the 9^th century by china, humanity has always been in continuous danger, the technological development and advancement of the gunpowder has contributed to the deaths of many in all corners of the world. Throughout history and down to the present, science and invention has been the contributing factor to all deaths, right from the colonial battles to the First World War, Second World War, and various civil wars of different countries and regions around the globe.

Some wars and their list of casualties

Name of war	Period of war	Casualties
World war 1	1914-1918	Over 40 million
World war 2	1939-1945	Over 75 million
American civil war	1861-1865	Over 2 million
Nigerian civil war	1967-1970	Over 3 million
Spanish civil war	1936-1939	Over 1 million
Ugandan bush war	1981-1986	Close to 1 million
Korean war	1950-1953	Over 2.5 million

Fig. 1

            The table above shows some wars fought in history and their catastrophic and alarming casualty rate, all these deaths were aided by the inventions of deadly artillery used for the killing of enemy soldiers who so happens to be humans. Figures shown in the data are just mere rough estimate and not the actual figure, which might be higher or lower. Science and invention against the world’s population has contributed to over 47% of mortality rate and has proven to be a continuous threat and danger to the existence of humanity.