Student 53

Vaccination Card

Current knowledge can be determined to be an improvement upon past knowledge by observing the scientific impact it has had on the health of society. One example of an object that represents this is my COVID-19 vaccination card.

COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus, and during the beginning of the pandemic the lack of knowledge about it meant that little could be done towards preventing its spread or intensity. If a person was exposed to COVID-19, they had little to no protection against it due to a limited understanding of how the virus worked. This changed with time, as greater knowledge of the virus resulted in better methods of protection, namely through vaccinations.

Vaccinations meant that a person exposed to COVID-19 had a significantly smaller chance of contracting the virus, and should that occur, it was more likely to have mild symptoms or be entirely asymptomatic. When I contracted COVID-19 in January 2022, it was thanks to my prior vaccinations that I recovered quickly and was not in a more perilous situation.

Without vaccination, the odds that the disease could result in hospitalization or even death were a grimly significant possibility, particularly as the pandemic’s now over three year long prominence has resulted in the mutation of the virus into several variants, often far more dangerous than the initial disease.

Some argue that vaccinations are unnecessary or useless as they are not 100% effective at preventing one from contracting the disease. Anti-vaccination protests have erupted across the country in support of this idea, and many refuse to take the vaccine due to this belief.

However, scientific data shows that those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are roughly 96% less likely to be hospitalized by the disease. Such empirical evidence, not influenced by cognitive biases but solely formed from clear data, displays that vaccinations formed from new knowledge are a clear improvement from past knowledge of medicine on the health of a population.

Britannica Online

Another example of an object that represents how current knowledge can be determined to be an improvement on past knowledge is the Britannica online encyclopedia.

The Britannica Encyclopedia is a database of knowledge across a wide array of subjects that I have used in several academic projects. With this, a vast amount of information is readily accessible to anyone with an internet connection, something previously not possible through past human knowledge of communication and information sharing. Having ready access to this information means that it can be learned and then subsequently built upon by a greater scientific community, contributing to the acquisition of knowledge of humanity as a whole in a manner that would not otherwise be possible.

It can be argued that the requirement of a subscription to this resource in order to access the entirety of its contents is a sign that this new form of knowledge is not superior to that of the past, as it comes with a price tag. Restrictions to availability minimize the amount of people who can obtain information and contribute to a gap in education based on those with the funds to access it.

However, in the past, academic knowledge was restricted to those with the wealth and social status to pursue an education and pay for resources such as textbooks, typically white upper class men. The price of the online database, in comparison, is far lower. In addition, it does not restrict its access to those of a particular social status due to the impersonal interaction of the online medium, thus demonstrating itself to be an improvement upon past knowledge by giving all the power of information.

The availability of information due to current knowledge of technology is a clear improvement on past knowledge of sharing information. More than ever before, information can be learned and acquired immediately without regard for social distinctions.

Fridge

The final object I have chosen to represent how current knowledge can be determined to be an improvement on past knowledge is my refrigerator.

Prior to the invention of refrigerators, food would spoil far more quickly. Methods such as salting meats protected food to some degree, but always altered taste and came with a higher chance of potential health risks. Refrigeration not only enhanced the culinary experience by not impacting taste, but made the consumption of food safer by limiting possibilities of bacterial growth. It can also preserve medication from degrading before use.

The refrigerator in my home means that food products can remain edible for longer periods of time. This reduces food waste from our household and means that less money is spent buying food to replace that which has spoiled.

However, an alternate perspective may consider refrigeration to be a downgrade on previous methods of food storage due to its environmental impacts. According to the BBC, cooling results in about 10% of global CO2 emissions, making it a significant factor in the increasing threat of climate changes.

Ethical considerations notwithstanding, refrigeration is a clear improvement on previous methods in terms of ability to preserve food for longer and more safely for consumption, as well as increasing the longevity of a medicine's effectiveness in order for it to be distributed further away.

When one weighs the positive impact of refrigeration on both food and medicine against its environmental impact, it is difficult to decide with certainty if it is a net improvement upon past knowledge surrounding food preservation. Today, it could be considered as such, but in the future, as the impacts of climate change continue to damage the planet, that perspective may change.