Srinagar, Sept. 20 -- Humanity has advanced at an astonishing pace in science and technology. We can place machines on Mars, edit genes, transplant organs, communicate instantly across continents, predict storms, produce food on an industrial scale and use artificial intelligence to solve problems that once seemed beyond human capacity. Infant mortality has fallen dramatically, life expectancy has increased, literacy has expanded, and billions have access to technologies that were unimaginable even a century ago.

But technological progress is not the same as human progress.

A civilisation can become more intelligent without becoming wiser. It can become more powerful without becoming more humane. And it can develop extraordinary tools w...