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From: wfi@rti.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: The Impact of Inventions
Message-ID: <2078@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Mon, 22-Jun-87 17:59:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.2078
Posted: Mon Jun 22 17:59:12 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Jun-87 02:33:40 EDT
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Herb Stahlke writes:

> The non-quantifiable, empirically untestable non-technological products 
> in thought and art of people like these have had greater impact, in 
> unpredictable ways, for good or ill, than all the Nobels, Edisons, 
> Eddingtons, and Bells combined.  ...  not because of their dangerous 
> inventions but because of their dangerous thoughts.  

But the 'dangerous thoughts' of scientists also have a great potential 
for influencing the structure of society and economic systems. Early 
20th century immigration laws, for example, discriminated against 
southern and eastern Europeans because they were 'provably' inferior 
people. Bad science has always been used to reify the prejudices of the 
people who control society's purse strings. In recent history, I refer
you to the writings of people like Wilson, Herrnstein, Shockley, Jensen, 
and Dawkins.

> Persecution of scientists and engineers because of the political misuse of 
> their inventions is the stuff of science fiction and fundamentalism...
> If we are to demand social impact statements of anyone, it should be of 
> the poets, [etc.] who shape the mores that in turn determine what society 
> does with the inventions of engineers and businessmen.  And the quickest 
> way to stifle the development of technology, for good or ill, is to 
> attempt to control thought.

Poets [etc.] usually are not in the service of the military-industrial
complex. Most scientists and engineers go where the money is, and the
money is in research that supports our right wing fantasies about
Russia's Evil Empire and the bloodsucking welfare state. It would be
nice to believe that poets, essayists and philosophers have great 
influence outside academia. Unfortunately, few people READ the poets,
essayists and philosophers, including college students at our 'best'
universities. I think you're overrating the impact of academic theorists
on society and underrating the role of technological Babbitry in defining
our political and economic realities. It's not the technologists who will 
be 'persecuted' and 'stifled' if they're given free rein to implement
their ideas without having to answer to the taxpayers who are funding
their research.
				      -- Bill Ingogly