A new relation is not conquistador's plunder. Science is not about
control. That is technology, another urge altogether. The pursuit of
living pattern that possessed [the molecular biochemist] has nothing to
do with this year's apotheosis of bioengineering. He once remarked
that mistaking science for technology deprived the nonscientist of one
of the greatest sources of awe, replacing it with diet as filling as
Tantalus's fruit. I had only to hear the man talk for fifteen minutes to
realize that science had no purpose. The purpose of science, if one
must, was the purpose of being alive: not efficiency or mastery, but
the revival of appropriate surprise.
Richard Powers
The Gold Bug Variations