Bill Joy knocked as ‘conspiracy theorist’ by tech zealot | The Register
July 22nd, 2005 Stephen Lau
Bill Joy knocked as ‘conspiracy theorist’ by tech zealot | The Register
Joy, partaking in an AlwaysOn 2005 Innovation Summit panel discussion entitled “Is technology making us safer?”, went on to say global warming and pandemics like Asian bird flue can only be solved using strong public policy.
“Political constipation” and partisanship in Washington meant Non Government Organizations (NGOs) are better placed to tackle these issues, Joy said.
Interesting article at The Register. I would have liked to have heard the debate, or at least read the transcript. Gilder’s counterpoint to Joy’s push for better public-policy & NGO involvement was to say: “What worries me is people today who are worried about global warming. We have these real phobias that distract our attention. The best remedy for Bill’s threat is very fast advances in bio engineering and pharmacology, and an array of scientific advances,” Gilder observed.”
While I agree that advances in bioengineering/pharmacology/science-in-general can help some things like the avian flu/global warming/etc… it’s not the complete solution. We can’t rely on a steady stream of advances. Scientific genius and progress is not always dependable.
We need public policy to try and decrease our emissions to stop the increase in global warming. But we also need science/tech advancement. The two have to go hand in hand. We need pharmacology to help figure out exactly how the avian flu spread to humans, and we need public policy to ensure it doesn’t happen again. (okay, that’s slightly generalising the problem - but you get my picture)
[tags: Quotage, SeriousThoughts]
1 Comment Add your own
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Nathan Brown | December 6th, 2006 at 15:44
I think that there is a lot more to solving problems like global warming and bird flu than public policy and technology.
People at an individual level and businesses both have the ability to make different choices in how they operate day to day.
For example, I live in an ecovillage and I have made changes in my own life that have drastically cut down on my green house gase emissions.
Tech vs. public policy is a false dicotomy.
Nathan Brown Learn how to prevent global warming by joining me in making one simple change.
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