Really, by the end, the author has reversed the situation to do the very thing complained of: science used to assuage the mores and anxieties of a given time.

Really, by the end, the author has reversed the situation to do the very thing complained of: science used to assuage the mores and anxieties of a given time. The issue, however, is that the underlying anxiety (whether in the Victorian Era or now) is the same: the desire that the future be eternal and the same as now, if not more so. So we don't even need to buy a new car or leave our homes. If we do nothing, surely the world won't move beneath our feet. Vast as it is, surely we can pretend the universe the opposite of a closed system.