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Value Issues Affecting Technological Innovation
| Article
# : |
14780 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
3,229 Words |
| Author
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Melvin Kranzberg
Melvin Kranzberg is Callaway Professor of the History of
Technology emeritus at Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta. His books include By the Sweat of The Brow and, as
coeditor, Ethics in an Age of Pervasive Technology. The author
of numerous articles in professional journals, Kranzberg was
for 12 years editor in chief of Technology and Culture, a
quarterly journal. |
Advances in technology have brought new and complex questions to the fore. Technology's value to mankind, which has long been taken for granted, is today subject to a host of new concerns. Old questions about the benefits or dangers of certain technological "triumphs"--such as nuclear warfare capabilities--have not gone away, and to these have been added new concerns regarding technology's effects upon the environment, human rights and dignity, and the like.
Nevertheless, despite the new value questions raised by novel technological capabilities, in the United States there seems to be near unanimity regarding the value of technological innovation and productivity in ensuring the nation's economic health.
In the United States the government is attempting to bolster technological innovation and productivity by promoting cooperation among industry, academia, military, and governmental institutions, as well as cooperative activities within selected industries. However, varying value premises in different segments of the scientific and technological communities and their institutional contexts have raised some problems that work against successful technological innovation.
Industrial and Academic Research Cooperation
Many scientists pride themselves on doing "pure" research, advancing knowledge for its own sake, although there is, of course, the possibility that their research may prove useful to mankind. Indeed, much governmental and corporate support of scientific research has rested upon useful and/or profitable applications of science. However, to many academic scientists, ties with industry would threaten the free flow of information essential for the exchange and growth of scientific knowledge; for industry is concerned with profits and hence wants to restrict the circulation of knowledge until it can be converted into a profitable product.
Nevertheless, in the late 1970s and early 1980s some of America's most prestigious universities and major corporations entered into long-term research agreements, particularly in the medical and biotechnological fields. These agreements were signed despite concern over the intellectual property and proprietary rights of research findings. At what stage of the research, for instance, should findings be made public? How can demands for free access to information be reconciled with confidentiality and proprietary rights? How can a corporation's need for secrecy be balanced with a scientist's
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