|
|
The
Armand V. and Donald S. |
|
|
|
Converging Technologies at Union Promoting the Free
Flow of People and Ideas I love my job. While at times frustrating, it is at the end of the day very interesting, and I think very important. CT, which at its heart is the promotion of the free flow of people and ideas, is good for Union, good for Union students, and in the long run, good for the larger society. I want thank Roger and Christie for their support, Armand and Donald for providing the occasion to discuss these issues, and Ray, Valerie, and Leo for their illustrations of CT. WHAT IS CT Let me begin by briefly summarizing what CT is, because it means different things to different people – not unlike the proverbial elephant described by a group of blind people. Specifically, one focus of CT is on new emerging interdisciplinary fields in the sciences and engineering; another focus is on promoting a productive dialog about technologies across the varied disciplines that make up engineering and the liberal arts. CT and DEPTH One objective of CT is to establish new areas of inquiry at Union, recognizing that important innovations, and new ways of understanding the world are increasingly occurring at the boundaries of traditional science and engineering disciplines. Buckminster Fuller noted this trend in his 1969 book, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, scientists at the beginning of World War II, “… began to realize that whereas a biologist used to think that he was dealing only in cells and that a chemist was dealing only in molecules and the physicist was dealing only in atoms, they now found their new powerful instrumentation and contiguous operations overlapping.” In areas such as biotechnology and nanoscience the convergence is accelerating. At Union we have majors in biochemistry, and neuroscience. We have a minor in bioengineering, a course in nanotechnology, and interdisciplinary research in the fabrication and properties of aerogels. This is the first sense in which we are implementing CT. CT and BREADTH Another equally important thrust of CT is to promote the dialog between scientists and engineers on the one hand, and humanists and social scientists on the other. We want to educate technologists with a sense of humanity, humanists with a sense of technology, and both groups with the capacity to converse with one another. As we seek this capacity, we do not want students to cross the disciplinary cultures quickly and fearfully, and only to check off a graduation requirement, only to hastily retreat to familiar territory, vowing never to return. Rather, we want our students to weave the threads of their Union education into a grand and meaningful tapestry. Why are these conversations important? I offer two brief examples.
These examples suggest that we live at a time when technology enables us to reengineer life – to “play God” in Watson’s terms– and when new technologies have unprecedented capability to build or destroy. It would behoove us to educate leaders with unprecedented understanding and wisdom – leaders with both a depth and breadth of knowledge face the challenges and opportunities imposed by modern science and technology. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, called “Manifesto for the Humanities in a Technological Age,” makes exactly this point: “if ever there were a time when society was in need of humanistic modes of inquiry, it is today. More than ever, we require the deep historical perspective and specialized knowledge of other cultures, regions, religions, and traditions provided by the humanities.” The challenge is to find the common language in which scientists and non-scientists can converse. K C Cole, the science writer for the LA times and author of Mind over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos, laments: …experts [in science and technology] worry that making their subjects accessible to the hoi polloi strips it of its depth, tarnishes its delicate beauty. … And yet, the alternative seems equally unacceptable. … It’s not only that the man and woman in the street know almost nothing about science … . Almost all of our intellectual and political leaders are equally ignorant. What we seek at Union is a healthy balance of breadth and depth. Don Feigenbaum has summarized our goal in the recent Accolades magazine interview: “We're going to live in a technologically advancing society with constant social and cultural pressures. So, get as broad an education as possible, but not so broad that you don't have a profession .” CT, then, should help all Union students to be at home in a rapidly changing world – a world of other peoples and cultures, and a world of technology. NEXT STEPS We are not finished implementing CT; CT is not something to be “finished” with. CT represents a process and an attitude; a campus culture which changes how we work and how we think about one another. We talked about this organizational transformation several years ago at this Forum when we initially discussed implementing CT. Even as the world’s technological issues more complex, many of the important questions remain the same – questions about ethics, beauty, civil discourse, mutual respect, awareness of consequences, assessment of risk, analysis of failure. These questions cut across traditional disciplines, and provide topics for conversation between C. P. Snow’s two cultures, or Union’s twenty-two-plus. This year we will be having a campus discussion about our general education curriculum. I believe that gen. ed. may provide a way to lead students into these conversations through courses designed to enroll students from all majors. I would also like to see more opportunities for students to participate on interdisciplinary teams, where upper-level students come together to contribute their expertise to the project. Finally, we seek to create a physical campus which promotes the free flow of people and ideas. An architecture supporting the philosophy of CT would be open and inviting. It would celebrate science and technology making it visible and exciting. It would shorten the physical and psychological distances between traditional disciplines, and provide spaces at the intersections to meet, both informally, and in the more serious pursuits of teaching and research. ENVISIONING SUCCESS As we continue with our process of organizational transformation, how will we measure our success? It will not be hard. We are already succeeding in creating a climate in which faculty and students make intellectual connections to people and ideas from other parts of the campus and to the world. We are capitalizing on our status as a college of liberal arts and engineering. We will know we have the right ideas because students will flock to our door, recognizing the value of a Union education. We will attract and retain the best and brightest faculty, faculty who will recognize the opportunity – I would even say the obligation – to educate future leaders – in all fields – who can converse with both engineers and humanists. Most importantly, we will proudly recognize ourselves – and if there is justice in the world, will be recognized by others – as a model college for the 21st Century. Thank you.
Doug Klein |
|
