Most of the citizens do not know them but thanks to their work, our life improves year after year. Of course, those who are in Bilbao these days will be able to see their faces throughout the city. The space usually reserved for artists or politicians during an electoral campaign is now occupied by the 18 winners of the XV BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, who yesterday received their awards after several days of events and tributes that have turned the Basque capital into a knowledge festival.
And it is that if to the work of the winners we add that of the prestigious international researchers that make up the Juries of the eight categories of these awards born in 2008 we have a global representation of the value of science and culture when facing the great challenges of humanity.
With a pandemic and a war in Europe that, moreover, has once again unleashed the risk of a nuclear confrontation and has unleashed a serious energy crisis, many citizens feel that we are living in an era of uncertainty and even have an apocalyptic vision of the future of our species. A vision that with “his enlightened optimism” was once again challenged by Steven Pinker, awarded along with Peter Singer in the Humanities category. The Harvard cognitive psychologist recalled during his speech one of his best-known arguments: the main well-being indicators have improved globally over the last few centuries despite the fact that, he maintains, our image of the world is distorted by news about “the worst things that happen every day.”
The reduction of violence, extreme poverty and infant mortality and, on the other hand, the increase in life expectancy, literacy and the number of countries with democratic governments are some of the examples that he mentioned to demonstrate that «the ideal of progress is not a matter of optimism or idealism»but an empirical fact that can be demonstrated.
In this sense, Eloísa del Pino, president of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), highlighted how the work of the winners has contributed to solving “problems such as the fight against disease, the conservation of biodiversity, the adequate distribution of wealth or the stability of democracy”.