The most important first premise in science is that mass can be neither created nor destroyed. It is also becoming clear that natural laws dictate that mass be connected to energy. In effect, mass-balance provides the only governing equation that is both necessary and sufficient. Clearly, this compels a paradigm shift in scientific study. If a process is engineered' in violation of natural principles of material production, the balance will be irreversibly disturbed, and the outcome of such a violated process both unpredictable and harmful to future generations. The post-Renaissance mode of technology development is based on an analogous corollary principle of mass production. This is an approach characterised by an excessive focus on quantity to the detriment of establishing or upholding definitive criteria as to quality. In order to make mass-produced materials acceptable to the consumer, non-scientific means have been used to cover up true properties of both materials and energy. As a result, today technologies ranging from photovoltaic electricity to genetically-modified crop production to mass-produced pharmaceutical products are considered to be in harmony with nature.
On the other hand, herbal medicine is dismissed as quackery and direct solar energy usage as pseudo-science. Nobel Laureates, such as the prize-winning chemist Robert Curl, have not shied from pronouncing this development mode a technological disaster'.