Technology and public policy: Whither side of Janus?

Abstract

Certainly no one can claim that the interaction of technology and public policy is a new issue, either in the United States or abroad. Ever since the scientific communities marshalled their expertise during the Second World War (radar and the atomic bomb being only the most pivotal examples), officials in the public arena have been quick to seek out scientific advice on any number of public policy issues; scientists have been no less reticent to insert themselves into the public debate, often in areas far from their areas of scientific competence. Considerable faith has been placed by both of these communities in the capability of science and technology to alleviate the nation's social maladies: nuclear energy would provide cheap and plentiful electricity for all; rapid transit systems would revitalize deteroriating city centers and their ghettos; and medical technology would cure all that ails. Science and technology were held out as examplars; if the United States can send a man to the moon, why can't it cure its urban problems became almost a clich6d call to arms. [1]. Yet, like too many attractive concepts, the applications of science and technology to public policy issues have not borne the consistent fruits its supporters would have hoped or predicted. The putative benefits of nuclear energy are profoundly debated; rapid transit systems have whisked people out of cities as easily as returning them; and medical technology has replaced one set of problems (the sick) with another, perhaps more intractable set of problems (the aged). Some have even doubted that this generation or the next can emotionally or intellectually absorb the rapid societal changes that technology is motivating [2]. And in the wake of the confusion that surrounded the Three Mile Island incident, commentators were asking if Americans still even believed or trusted the scientific community. Yet the rainbow beckons: the Administration's and Congress' emphasis on synthetic fuel production as the means to meet the energy crisis and insure independence from foreign energy sources is a striking example [3]. It is probably safe to assume that technology and public policy have been inextricably conjoined; practically, it would be impossible to separate the two to relegate technology back to the laboratories of private industry nor, given the promise, should that even be a considered option. As Frank Press, President Carter's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, has phrased it, the choice is