I wrestle with the social status of science. Scientific progress is real but possibly counterproductive and thus absurd in the end. The optimistic scenario is the far-flung sci-fi one: we become immortal transhuman gods living in a galactic empire. Unlike the theological scenario, that kind of extreme technoscientific progress is at least possible. But technoscience could just as easily destroy life. The thing is that we need more than knowledge and power. We need an existential perspective to ground us in using them.