The global Covid-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our social and political lives, such as the balance between work and family, the shrinking role of the public sphere and the growth of government by executive or emergency powers. Among the most surprising consequences of this situation has been the rise of scepticism and hostility towards science and scientific authorities. This essay examines the interdependence of modern science and the modern state via a brief detour to Hobbes’s philosophy. The economic growth and affluence made possible by the yoking of scientific technology to a modern market economy served to legitimize public power for several centuries. We have reached the end of this cycle and we need a science in the service of reversing the damages inflicted by the Anthropocene on the earth; we need economic production in the service of human equality and dignity, and we need a state in which the alliance between big pharma, big capital and big data is harnessed for a new green deal rather than serving corporate greed.

全球Covid-19大流行已经改变了我们社会和政治生活的许多方面，例如工作与家庭之间的平衡，公共领域作用的缩小以及行政或紧急权力机构对政府的增长。这种情况最令人惊讶的后果之一就是对科学和科学权威的怀疑和敌意的抬头。本文通过简短介绍霍布斯的哲学，考察了现代科学与现代国家的相互依存关系。科学技术对现代市场经济的掌握使经济增长和富裕成为可能，这使公共权力合法化了几个世纪。我们已经到了这个周期的尽头，我们需要一门科学，以扭转地球上人类世所造成的损害；