Riding the Wave: Rethinking Science & Technology Policy
Andrew Maynard
2009-10-16 00:00:00
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Three factors in particular are influencing the challenges we face, and the tools we have at our disposal to meet them. These are the rate at which knowledge and ideas are propagating and influencing people, the increasingly strong links between human actions and environmental re-actions, and the ability of scientists, technologists and engineers to bend the material world to their every whim; from atoms and molecules to global weather systems. These are my three “C’s” – communication, coupling and control.



Separately, these three factors confront us with new challenges and new opportunities. Together, they demand a new way of thinking about science and technology if we’re going to ride the wave of the future, rather than being engulfed by it.

The obvious question at this point is, “How effective are current approaches to developing and using science and technology, and what (if anything) needs to change if we are to adapt and thrive as a species?” In other words, how as a society can we make decisions that will ensure we have the necessary scientific understanding and technological know-how to overcome emerging challenges and realize the opportunities facing us, without creating more problems than we solve?

And that means we need to talk about science and technology policy.

Effective science and technology policy depends on a robust a framework for decision-making that helps ensure an appropriate level of investment in science and technology, and a good return on that investment. Every developed country/economy has well-established approaches to science and technology policy—whether formally expressed, or simply in the form of a prevalent set of assumptions or beliefs amongst policy makers. And these approaches have worked okay in the main over the past fifty years or so.

But are they flexible enough to weather the looming challenges of the 21st century?

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