Imperfection In The Medusa And The Snail

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Imagine a world where penicillin was never concocted, x-rays weren’t discovered as a means of imaging, and one where there is no such appliance as the microwave. These are inventions that saved lives, aided extreme advances in medical knowledge, and in the case of the microwave, proved to be a household product that reinvented the meaning of “fast food”. In the excerpt from The Medusa and the Snail, biologist Lewis Thomas lays out the importance and beauty of the human imperfection. Deeply engraved within the human psyche is the ultimate goal of complete perfection. Ironically, some of the most influential and revolutionary inventions stemmed from mistake and accident, such as the items mentioned above. This ironic relationship between the human psyche and the outside world is one explored and qualified by Thomas. This idea of beauty within imperfection is one embraced by Thomas for good reason.

Furthermore, our world as it is today, is seen as being in a state of high intellect while continuing to exponentially progress towards societal perfection. However, this advanced society and progressive state …show more content…

Within the first sentence of the fourth paragraph Thomas makes his central claim of, “The misreading is not the important error; it opens the way.” This idea of error fostering progression is one that has been proven true in multiple instances throughout all of human history. If penicillin was never accidentally invented, many people during the WWII era would have died from the likes of scarlet fever, pneumonia, and even cases of strep throat. Without the accidental invention of this revolutionary medicine, the bacteria that it would have targeted and killed would have killed thousands of people due to there being no cure. This is one of many instances where human imperfection had a massive impact on the well-being and progression of the entire

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