November 18, 1990

THE SCIENCE and technology research and development (R&D) system in the United States has made most of the world green with envy for many years, but just like most everything else here these days, times have been changing and they haven’t been for the better.

The amount of R&D investment, both by the federal government and private industry, has been dropping. Japan and Western Europe are investing more than ever in long-term, “blue-sky” R&D — that means an emphasis on the “R” and not so much on the “D” — but the U.S. is leaning more toward short-term applications research and product development that allows investors to cash in and cash out faster. The results can be easily seen in any computer or electronics store today, but believe me, in five years the situation will be worse than your wildest imaginings today.

Military R&D is also a gigantic problem. According to an excellent article called “Targeting National Needs,” in the Spring 1990 World Policy Journal (based in New York City), more than 2/3 of the $62.1 billion federal R&D budget for 1990 was targeted toward defense.

That was dumb during the Reagan era, and it’s even dumber now. Peace breaking out all over, in combination with our ravaged economy, is making it abundantly clear to many working in the military sector that someone had better get serious about converting high-tech swords to plowshares and get our scientists and engineers doing long-term research on the more pressing problems of the day — problems such as environmental protection, renewable energy, mass transportation and infrastructure, the mechanization of the labor force and health and safety issues surrounding technology.

Frankly, I don’t think it requires a degree in rocket science to see the wisdom in this, and my suspicion is that boatloads of engineers out there are itching to work on such problems, if they could just get the money to do so. Try to get a word in edgewise between the political infighting, money squabbles and posturing, however, and where you get is nowhere at the speed of light.

But there is good news, maybe. Computer Professionals for Responsibility, Palo Alto-based and the nation’s only public interest organization of high-tech professionals, is in the process of forming a coalition dedicated to promoting a new agenda for science and technology in the U.S. It’s circulating a funding proposal to major foundations and private parties for the plan — which it’s calling “The 21st Century Project.”

For $25,000, CPSR will spend six months working up a full proposal for the two-year project to create a “new, positive and optimistic national agenda that will leverage the scientific and technical skill in the country,” and will, as CPSR executive director Gary Chapman says, try to “reverse 45 years of military dominance in government R&D priorities.”

The idea is to garner widespread public support for changing the system as it’s set up today, a daunting task considering the immense ignorance of the population about technology-related matters. But CPSR’s approach is multi-faceted: it intends to set up a Washington D.C. office to coordinate project activities with policy makers and members of Congress. It’s forming an advisory board of “prestigious Americans” who, in true AdBo form, will lend their name to the letterhead; a steering committee will shape the project’s direction; a small group of specialists will form a research project to get down to the brass tacks of what a redirected science and technology policy would look like.

Even more interesting, CPSR is planning a public bulletin board where “anyone with a computer and a modem could join a national dialogue about science and technology policy” — serving the dual purpose of getting people talking about technology while they’re learning to use it. Pretty heady stuff.

I can think of many projects I’d like to see our country’s greatest minds set to, but some of the first are pretty basic. If we can put a man on the moon, as they say, surely we can find a way to manufacture stuff without fouling ourselves or our nests, invent and design computers, keyboards and monitors that don’t give us nasty diseases or cripple us, and integrate technology into our lives without making us automatons.

Before we tread any farther along the path toward technological nirvana, it’s vital that we learn to embrace only technologies that empower us and respect the power of the human body and mind. It sounds like that’s what the 21st Century Project has in mind, and I sure hope it works.