by Philipp Steger
In times of distress, hardly any
force is invoked as frequently, albeit indiscriminately, as scientific
and technological progress. Outside of religion, it is this force that
modern man has come to rely upon most in the face of chaos, disaster,
and the all-powerful forces of nature, and has elevated to almost
mythical heights. But it doesn’t require a catastrophe on the
unprecedented scale of the destruction of New Orleans for people to
seek salvation in technological progress. Today, it has become the
answer to all sorts of issues, ranging from global warming and the
global energy conundrum, to the war against terrorism.
“This opportunity [to project America’s peaceful influence] is created by a revolution in the technology of war. Power is
increasingly defined, not by mass or size, but by mobility and
swiftness. Influence is measured in information, safety is gained in
stealth, and force is projected on the long arc of precision-guided
weapons. . . . The best way to keep the peace is to redefine war on our terms.”
Concepts and techniques from
mathematics – specifically, from Lattice Theory and Reflexive Theory –
have already been applied to counterterrorism and computer security
problems. The following is a partial list of such problems:
In an increasingly knowledge-based
global economy, the wealth of a nation is significantly determined by
its capacity for innovation. Science and research appear more and more
to be a part of the political agenda, as the debate on federal and
state financing for stem cell research in the United States recently
showed. The public and political debate on science and technology
issues, however, is not unique to the United States, Europe, or another
nation—science and research have become globalized to such an extent
that these fields are relevant factors in global economy. Issues such
as stem cell research in the US, for instance, are debated so
prominently not only because of their promise for relieving human
ailments, but also due to their economic bearing on industries,
municipalities, regions, states, and nations. The demand to double
Europe’s research budget for the next seven years was certainly not
driven by the notion of “recherche pour la recherche” but by the goal
of making Europe’s economy more competitive. In general, the answer to
the question of “who has and who doesn’t have” scientific capacities
provides evidence of the status of a country’s development on a global
scale.
The world’s quest for the next
medical cure, state-of-the-art products and systems, and advanced
research developments has translated into an increased demand for
high-performance laboratories.
