Can science & technology help society?

The STS (Science, Technology and Society) Forum held in Kyoto during September 11-13 deliberated on many societal issues that could be addressed by science and technology. While no earth-shaking declarations were made, the conference brought together outstanding global talent across diverse disciplines, who identified six key issues. Discussions were held on six different concurrent themes. One was sustainability—energy and environment, including global warming, emission control, long-term energy paths and renewable energy. Two, life sciences, including bio-ethics, stem cells, genomics and agriculture and medicine for global health. Three, Information Communication Technology (ICT) impact on human society, including inter-operability and privacy/security issues. Then, on capacity building, including a knowledge-based society, science education and communication, university reforms and intellectual property rights. Five, science and technology for human security, including infectious diseases control, vulnerability of critical infrastructure and natural disaster management. And, six, new frontiers opened science and technology, including IT, manufacturing and materials science. The delegates included 10 Nobel laureates besides which, there were presidents of science academies and national academies from diverse countries. In addition, there were heads of several national research councils and university presidents. Plus a number of policy makers —there were at least 17 ministers. And business leaders—from Google, HP, Microsoft, Nokia, and Yahoo, representing the ICT industry; Canon, NEC, Samsung, Siemens, Sharp, and TSMC, representing the electronics and semi-conductor industry; Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer, representing the pharma industry; Shell, Nippon Steel, Toyota and Honda Motors, representing core industry. And, representatives of the UN, the European Commission, ISO, WIPO, IEC, European Patents Office, World Energy Council, and the OECD. As mentioned earlier, no earth-shaking declarations were made: the event was the bringing together of all this talent across the multitude of strands of specialisation. The delegates identified the six key issues — ICT development to bridge the digital divide; universal access to education; standards for bioethics; control of infectious diseases such as AIDS; action against terrorism; and, nuclear fusion as a source of power. The takeaways are simple. Science and technology can immensely benefit humankind. But we need to get all the stakeholders—scientists who create scientific knowledge, industry that converts the knowledge for profit, the governments that should ensure the profit motives do not lead to undue distortion in the way the benefits are shared by the people at large, who are the ultimate stakeholders. Globalisation does not just mean the emergence of multi-national corporations. It also means that global leaders from academia, industry and government will use their collective wisdom to solve global problems. More

User comments

 Printable version