The Beginning of a New History
http://www.pugwash.org/reports/pim/pim17.htm
Francis Fukuyama and Jacques Attali
respond to Bill Joy's concerns about the ethical implications of new
technologies
New Perspectives Quarterly
NPQ: One idea Joy raises is "to relinquish the pursuit of knowledge and
development of those technologies so dangerous that we judge it better if they
are never available." Is that really viable?
Fukuyama: Now that we've gotten on this technological escalator it is
extremely difficult to renounce science, beginning with the scientists
themselves. In my experience, any suggestion to scientists that society may
have broader purposes in wanting to slow down or stop technological progress
is usually met with a wall of incomprehension. Among scientists there is a
general assumption dating back to Francis Bacon that scientific progress is
for the better of all mankind.
Perhaps the time is coming, thanks to arguments by scientists like Bill Joy,
where that assumption can be questioned in a serious way. Certainly, there is
no prima facie reason that more scientific progress is, automatically, always
best. Again, due to the specific character of nuclear weapons, we have managed
to slow down the proliferation process-at least keeping it in the hands of
nation states-through diplomatic and institutional means as well as deterrent
strategies that were designed for that purpose.
Jacques Attali: Nobody will renounce science, but it will be possible to
orient it for the best of mankind. Why not create an equivalent to the Pugwash
Conference convened during the Cold War by scientists and public figures
seeking to avoid nuclear war? Similarly, the new movement would generate an
awareness about the perils and promises of the future of science.
Mankind has now the means to commit species suicide. That deserves some
attention. Yet, my fight against nuclear proliferation has taught me that
people are not in the mood today to be worried by very long term threats. They
are much too focused on survival in the short term.
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It is not the pursuit of knowledge and technology that is dangerous. The real
danger is the possibility that scientific progress will put powerful
technologies in the hands of religious fanatics whose exceptionalist beliefs
enable them to perpetrate mass destruction. If new technologies are outlawed,
then only outlaws will have new technologies. Proponents of evolutionary phase
transition intend to liberate intelligence, and opponents mean to enslave it.
Intelligence itself has no preference. It can wait... and waiting is the most
powerful tactic of all. "If you can wait long enough, the whole world will
crumble at your feet," says M. T. Ness.
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment
We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
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