11/02/2026
"For me, the only true, serious science worth pursuing is science fiction. The other, the official one, which has its altars in laboratories, is groping its way forward, without any middle ground. And it's even starting to be afraid of its own shadow. It seems that the moment of anguish is approaching for scientists. In their aseptic laboratories, wrapped in their starched lab coats, these old children, playing with unknown things, building ever more complicated devices and inventing ever more obscure formulas, are beginning to wonder what tomorrow will bring, what this ever-new research will ultimately lead to.
"Finally!" I say. "And what if it's too late? Biologists are asking themselves this now, or physicists, chemists. To me, they're crazy. While they're already changing the face of the universe, it's only now occurring to them to wonder if, by chance, it might be dangerous." What if everything blew up? What if the bacteria so lovingly cultivated in pristine laboratories turned into deadly enemies? What if the world were swept away by a horde of these bacteria, along with all the filth that inhabits it, starting with those lab scientists? To Freud's three impossible positions—governing, educating, psychoanalyzing—I would add a fourth: science. Except that they, the scientists, don't know they're in an untenable position.
°That's a rather pessimistic view of what is commonly defined as progress.°
Not at all, I'm not pessimistic. Nothing will happen. For the simple reason that humankind is good-for-nothing, not even capable of self-destruction. A total calamity brought about by humankind—personally, I would find that wonderful. Proof that we would have finally succeeded in creating something with our own hands, with our own minds, without divine, natural, or any other intervention. All these beautiful, well-fed bacteria roaming the world, like the biblical locusts, would signify the triumph of humankind. But it won't happen. Science is having its own crisis of responsibility. Everything will return to normal, as they say. I've said it before, reality will prevail as always, and we'll be screwed as always".
Jacques Lacan
