Why become a scientist?

I have started thinking why one should become a scientist. I do not mean questioning the modest salary a scientist receive or the difficulty of finding a permanent job or fighting for getting a grant or fighting for the survival in science. My question is more society oriented. What is the contribution of a scientist to the world? An obvious answer, in the words of Feynman, is to provide technology: the output of science is understanding how small things work in the world; then, we can build and imitate that part. Providing technology, e.g. disease cures or Internet, are good per se, but how helpful they are for helping humans understand themselves. How much more human the technology makes us. I am quite pessimist about technology though I am one of its best consumers. To me, the ones who try to have a general understanding about the world, for example Zizek, are more respected. They can understand human interactions in broader scale, and they attempt to enlighten people. I have a more sincere appreciation for such a contribution compared to scientists'. Having said that, I have recently decided to set aside my pessimist approach towards science, and, instead, clearly read their recent discoveries with a nonjudgemental mindset. I might have been too biased by only relying on my understanding about science through a narrow branch of neuroscience that I have spent the past five years of my life on. I will share my thoughts and readings here.