2020 Science is something of a labor of love – it’s a website where I explore my thoughts and ideas surrounding the interface between science, technology and society beyond the constraints of my “day job” (currently Chief Science Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center). I like to think I bring a balanced and, on a good day, sophisticated perspective to the stuff I write about. So I was intrigued and just a little taken aback when Jim Thomas at ETC Group, recently pointed out that, actually, I’m quite obviously flying the flag for the established pro-technology innovation camp.
Jim was right – up to a point. I do adhere to the “ideology” that if we are to survive the future, we need to get a lot smarter in how we develop and use technology. But I also hope that I’m aware enough to recognize that there are other very different, but equally legitimate, perspectives on the role of technology innovation in society. So this got me thinking – maybe I should invite a group of people with a range of different perspectives on tech innovation to write a series of guest blogs on the subject. I’d find it useful. But more importantly, I think people reading this blog would find it useful.
After speaking to a few friends within the Civil Society community (including NGOs like ETC Group, NRDC and Friends of the Earth), the idea took shape: I would dedicate a week’s worth of blog space to ten different thought-leaders, asking each of them to address a single question:
“How should technology innovation contribute to life in the 21st century?”
With no editorial control from me (bar framing the question), and a few simple guidelines on length and style, my hope was that this would provide something of a unique perspective on the role of technology innovation in society – including its potential downsides – and demonstrate that the future depends on responding to and working with many value systems, not just the apparently prevalent ones.
I should in all honesty point out that the thought of handing over the blog to a bunch of NGOs for the week scared the life out of me. As it turns out, the process has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only did these writers from a range of organizations graciously agree to write for the blog – they produced articles that without exception inform, challenge and enlighten.
The series starts next Monday (Dec 14) and ends on Dec 18. Each day, I will be posting two guest blogs from the series; one in the morning, one in the afternoon. The complete lineup can be found here.
Do look out for them and read them – they all well worth the time. I don’t expect everyone will agree with everything that’s written – that’s OK. But do me a favor – if you don’t agree (or even if you do, or have additional points you would like to make or questions you would like to ask), please do add comments to the blogs – that’s what the “Leave a Comment” box is there for!
With that, all that remains is for me to thank my ten guest bloggers – who without exception the gave of their time and energy with great generosity, and far exceeded my expectations. Thank you.
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Marcy Darnovsky, Center for Genetics & Society
Gregor Wolbring, University of Calgary
Georgia Miller, Friends of the Earth
Geoff Tansey, Food Ethics Council
Jen Sass, Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC)
Richard Owen, University of Westminster
Richard Worthington, Loka
George Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA)
Tim Jackson, University of Surrey
Jim Thomas, ETC Group
See the full series details at “Technology innovation, life, and the 21st century – ten alternative perspectives“
Update, 12/15/09 – Richard Owen was added as a late substitution for Debra Harry
Please allow me to thank you very much for the outstanding work this blog is actually achieving. I found the previous series on Rethinking S&T fascinating, and I am really looking forward to this set of invited papers on innovation.
Thanks Francois,
Hopefully you’ll enjoy the blogs next week – there are some excellent pieces coming up!
I am also looking forward to this set of texts written by invited bloggers, but I believe that two per day is quite demanding.
You’re right it is! I was going to publish one per day for a week (thinking that extending the series beyond a week wouldn’t hold readers’ attention), but it quickly became clear that the perspectives here are so diverse within the civil society community that 5 blogs simply weren’t enough.
The good news though is that they will all be archived, so that people can go back and read them at their leisure.
I was giggling as I read this post, thinking that two a day were a lot to keep up with too, and that perhaps I lacked a certain intellectual rigour. Ahem. But I am so pleased to see you bring this project to fruition, and think the advantage of the way you’ve structured it is that we can wait till the end of the week if we like and read all 10 posts at once, like a mini monograph that’s appearing first in serial form. Had you spread the posts out over a longer period of time I think it’s less likely people would read them sequentially as they come out. It’ll be interesting to see which post are most read and how wide the spread is; also interesting to see what kind of debate this will engender on the whole subject. Which is, I think, the point.
Is it Monday yet?
It’s always hard to predict how these things will go, but there are some pretty high profile writers here, so hopefully interest (and responses) will be high.
And of course, I expect you to be reading the posts as they come out, with every ounce of intellectual rigor you can muster… 😉
[Actually, I don’t think any of them are a daunting read]