THE DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS OF WESTERNERS

            Think of all the inventions created over the last four or five centuries and how they have made life easier or even viable for most of the world’s population. Trains, planes, automobiles and boats (or at least the propeller driven types) for example have revolutionised transport. Radio, telephones, television and more recently computers and the Internet have revolutionised communications. Developments in medicine from keyhole surgery to antibiotics and vaccinations have saved countless lives.

            For example in 1608 Hans Lippershey invented the telescope which was later used by Galileo in astronomy. In 1800 Luigi Galvani and Alessandro invented a device that gave a continuous flow of electricity. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and Karl Benz invented the automobile in 1885. Guglielmo Marconi produced the radio in 1895 and John Baird produced the first television on 1926. By 1903 the Wright brothers had progressed to powered flight even if their plane only stayed aloft for 12 seconds on its first flight. (1)

            Technology follows scientific discoveries and there have been quite a few discoveries over the last five hundred years. In 1543 the Flemish-born doctor, Andreas Vesalius published “The Fabric of the Human Body” in which he updated knowledge of human anatomy and helped put aside the ancient teachings of the Greek writer Galen whose writings had been accepted for 1000 years. Galen unlike Vesalius had never actually dissected a human body. In the same year Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, put forward the idea that the Earth moved around the Sun rather than, as had been accepted, the Sun moved around the Earth. Europeans began exploring the world and in 1606 Luis de Torres sailed through the strait between New Guinea and Australia. In 1642 Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand and Tasmania and not so long after Henry Baffin came within 13 degrees of the North Pole.

            As the centuries passed more and more scientific discoveries were made. In 1616 William Harvey’s research revealed how blood moves around the human body. In 1729 Stephen Gray discovered that an electric charge could be carried by certain materials such as metals but not glass or dry silk threads. Michael Faraday made more achievements with electricity and magnetism in the 1830s. More recently Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin which was later developed into the first antibiotic and in 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the “double helix” structure of DNA. The discoveries and inventions just mentioned are only a tiny fragment of those made over the last five centuries. It’s noticeable that these, and in fact most discoveries over the last five centuries or so have been made by white Europeans or people of European descent. (2)

            A survey of Nobel Prize winners in the sciences shows a mere 2% were non-European from 1901 to 1950, and this rose to only 6% from 1951 to 2000. Most of the non-Europeans were Japanese or Chinese and none were African. (3)

            Those of European, (i.e. white) ancestry have accounted for the overwhelming majority of scientific advances without which we would not have a much higher living standard than our ancestors, and in fact billions of us would not have come into existence. The white race has much to be proud of but most modern discourse is not on our achievements but on using whites as scapegoats for the world’s problems, particularly when those people of darker hues don’t keep up with us. However this is only part of the problem.

            Most European populations have very low birth rates and will shortly reach zero or negative population growth if not for a largely non-European flood of migrants. (4) Will these newcomers exhibit the inventiveness and scientific curiosity that whites have done over the last five centuries? In view of the poverty and oppression their own cultures have produced it would seem unlikely. So far they have been noted more for their crime and other social problems than for making a positive contribution to their new countries. (5)

            As for the countries of northeast Asia who in the Middle Ages had levels of technology equivalent to those of Europe, their birth rates are as low or lower than European nations. Japan has a falling population and the low fertility rates in China will probably see a falling population in a decade or two. (6)

            The European derived nations like the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia seem to be doing a bit better but still have fertility rates below the 2.1 needed to maintain their population levels without immigration. And it is not the genius level citizens who have the most children but those poorly placed on the Bell Curve. Those migrant groups that exhibit the most social problems are those who have the highest birth rates. (7)

            Among all the other problems with dysgenic birth rates and immigration is that the inventiveness and scientific endeavour Westerners have exhibited for five centuries is likely to seriously decline. Human progress is likely to slow, if not stop.

(1) https://www.interestingfacts.org.uk/inventions-over-the-last-5--y..  ; https://ehistory.osu.edu/artilces/greatest-inventions-past-1000-years

(2) David Ellyard, “Who Discovered What When?” Reed New Holland, Chatswood, 2007

(3) Charles Murray, “Human Accomplishment”, Perennial, New York, 2004, p. 284

(4) “Total Fertility Rate”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate#

(5) Grace Guarnieri, “Migrants in Europe Linked to Soaring Violence and Crime in Germany, Study Finds”, https://www.newsweek.com  1 March 2018

(6) https://www.worldometers.info/population/china-eu-usa-japan-comparison

(7) Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, “Intelligence”, Ulster Institute for Social Research, London, 2014; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 33010DO006 Births, Australia, 2018, table 6.1, Country of birth of mother – 2018