In science it’s important to resist the natural human impulse to ascribe telos to inanimate things…. (opens in new tab)

In science it’s important to resist the natural human impulse to ascribe telos to inanimate things. The things we study simply are; while their interactions may reliably produce certain outcomes, this does not imply that the production of these outcomes is what those things are “for”. So, yes, the ray often causes death, but that doesn’t make it a “death ray”.