Utilitarian solutions do not reach to the problems of the human soul, but I appreciate them very much all the same. There is room for all of us, it seems. A scientist will work out the calcs that the engineer will use to design the stuff that another guy will build that we all will use.
The ultimate "why" and "wherefor" usually doesn't get addressed during the workday of any of us, except in the quiet times, since most of us have our hands full with the needs of the moment and those quiet times are few and far between.
The pure theorist you refer to is another breed. The guy who spends his time staring into the dark at the edge of the camp isn't always respected by the people who tend the campfires, but there is room for a few of these guys, and even a crying need for them, but its not work everyone is capable of. You can be a mediocre scientist, or engineer, or plumber, and still do valuable work. The mediocre visionary isn't much use to anyone.
Some people are simply drawn to it, they can't help themselves. Its pointless to complain that there aren't more of them.
Beautifully put, marron. Yet it does take all kinds to make a universe, and we all have to get along.
My main point is that science does not have ALL the answers. It is one of two branches of the total episteme, the other being the so-called humanities including philosophy, theology, cosmology, psychology, et al. To me, it is the leading theoretical thinkers from both branches that make the discoveries that end up benefiting mankind.
Science cannot make man "good," but then neither can philosophy. But at least philosophy asks questions about the nature of human existence and its prospects. It engages the great questions of Life in a way that science never does. At least, not so far.
And so when folks tell me that some day science is going to "cure mortality," to abolish death, I just have to ask: How is it going to do that, when it doesn't even seem to know what Life is?