Flying High

According to what we refer to as Greek mythology, Icarus flew too close to the sun (against his father’s instruction) and thus his wings, affixed with wax, melted and he plunged into the sea and drowned. In a recent speech an emeritus professor of classics compared the flight of Icarus to the misuse of technology. The moral he drew was that misuse of technology, then and now, spells death. (Stephen Betman, formerly of the University of Windsor, speaking in February 2005, Southfield, Michigan)