Technological innovation isn’t just scientific. Akhila Seetharaman speaks to the experts about how it’s changing society.
 “In the 1960s, the United States was at a crossroads,” said Esha Shah, a science and technology studies expert at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. “Planners had to decide between building an extensive rail network or an elaborate system of highways,” said Esha Shah.
They chose highways – a decision that not only profoundly influenced the American way of life but also locked them into a perpetual dependency on carbon-based fuels. “Overhauling the system and creating public transport by rail to replace highways in the United States will be costly and perhaps unrealistic even over the next 100 years,” Shah said.
This fortnight, Shah is organising a series of public discussions around the idea that technology and science influence the way we live. Scheduled to take place in Hyderabad, Bangalore and New Delhi, the Knowledge Society Debates, an initiative of the STEPS Centre at the University of Sussex, bring together European and Indian visions of the future of public life as shaped by science, technology and innovation.
The theme for the public discussion here is innovation, given the city’s reputation as a hub of entrepreneurial activity in technology. But the question to ask according to Shah is “Innovation for whom?”
“Is there justice in this kind of scientific and technological innovation?” asked sociologist of science and technology, Shiv Visvanathan, who will lead the responses at the debates. “We need to ask how innovation in Bangalore affects Karnataka, how the body of scientific knowledge in the English language relates to science in Kannada, and apart from building advanced science centres, whether we are concerned at all with bringing science to schools and colleges.”
He categorised scientific and technological innovation in Bangalore into three phases – the era of M Visveswaraya’s civil engineering works, the contribution of scientists like Satish Dhawan, CV Raman and others to public institutions like Indian Space Research Organisation, National Aeronautics Limited and the Indian Institute of Science, and finally the period of the information technology and biotechnology boom.
According to Shah, becoming a “knowledge society” entails making sure that while we adopt one kind of innovation, we don’t foreclose other options. “For example, adopting nuclear energy would mean investing huge amounts of human and financial resources in creating manpower, setting up reactors and distribution systems,” she said. “But while doing so we should make sure to keep our other energy options alive and viable by investing in them as well.”
While the Indian public still trusts the inherent goodness of science and technology, the scenario in Europe is markedly different, said Shah. According to a European Commission report titled Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously, technological interventions over the past 50 years have led to risks and uncertainties that have made people wary of science.
“There is an increasing anxiety about industrialisation and food production. Europe is moving towards a future with fewer cars, less waste, less technological intervention in food and less mechanisation. America, on the other hand, is moving in the opposite direction,” said Shah.
Countries like India and China have a lot to contribute to the debates, said Visvanathan. “Each has a different style of science and innovation influenced by the extent of democracy and the role of tradition, among other factors,” he said.
As the direction of science and technology enters the purview of political discussion and decision-making, there is also a need for greater public engagement with science. “The Right to Information has to go deeper and apply to debates that usually take place only in science journals. Science and technology concern everybody,” said Visvanathan.
“We need to ask questions like ‘What is the ethical basis of these things?’, ‘How does the ordinary person deal with this?’, ‘What is the nature of accountability?’” he said.
To start off, India has established a National Knowledge Commission to focus on issues like knowledge access, creation, application and delivery of services.
“We are already a knowledge society since India has a rich supply of traditional knowledge that we draw on in our everyday lives,” said Vijay Chandru, who runs a life sciences technology company in the city.
“I think the buzz associated with ‘knowledge society’ has more to do with our aspirations for universal formal education and the growth potential of the ‘knowledge industry’ which we can leverage to reap the demographic dividend,” he said.
But as Shah pointed out, it’s not about the accumulation of knowledge or about innovation, but about the kinds of knowledge being created and the innovations taking place. “Investing in education needs more thought than just creating more institutions,” she explained. “If we are going to educate more engineers to build more cars and bridges and highways, what kind of future are we setting ourselves up for? The content of higher education needs to be put under the microscope.” |
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