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April 08, 2005

Your future, via technology

Eminent Australian engineer, Lord Alec Broers, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says he was astonished by the fact that in a recent poll which asked the public to rank Britain’s greatest inventions, the bicycle was chosen over electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the invention of vaccinations.

Delivering the first [MP3 download and text] of this year’s BBC Reith Lectures series, Lord Broers says part of the blame for this profound lack of appreciation of the accomplishments of Faraday, Stephenson, Maxwell, Thomson, Whittle and Crick and Watson [too bad he didn’t mention Rosalind Franklin], lies with engineers and scientists. They have failed to explain the importance of advanced technologies in a way lay people can understand, he says, but there is also a failure to look forward, and to understand that technologists are determining the future of the human race. He suggests we’d better make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Posted by cw at April 8, 2005 05:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Ablaze at April 10, 2005 12:30 AM