The Survival Nexus: Science, Technology, and World Affairs

by Charles Weiss

Overview

Technology and science can enable us to create a richer, healthier, sustainable, and equitable world, but they can also lead to global disaster. After all, human technical, political, economic, business, and ethical decisions determine the impact of scientific discoveries and technological innovations...

In this book, Charles Weiss explores the intertwining of science, technology, and world affairs that affects everything from climate change and global health to cybersecurity, biotechnology, and geoengineering. Compact and readable, the book ties together ideas and experiences arising from a broad range of diverse issues, ranging from the structure of the energy economy to the future of work and the freedom of the internet.

The Survival Nexus highlights opportunities to mobilize science and technology for a better world through technological innovations that address global health, poverty, and hunger. It alerts the reader to the Earth-in-the balance risks stemming from the decline in the international cooperation that once kept the dangers of pandemics, climate change, and nuclear war in check. It warns of the challenge to democracies from the multi-faceted global information and cyber-wars being waged by authoritarian powers. Central to the global problems it explores are questions of basic ethics: how much are people willing to respect scientific facts, to act today to forestall long-run dangers, and to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits, costs, and risks arising from advances in science and technology.

Weiss clearly explains the technical principles underlying these issues, showcasing why scientists, policy makers, and citizens everywhere need to understand how the mix of science and technology with politics, economics, business, ethics, law, communications, psychology, and culture will shape our future. This important nexus underpins issues critical to human survival that are overlooked in the broader context of world affairs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190946265
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/13/2021
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Charles Weiss is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he directed the Program in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. He has a BA, summa cum laude, and a PhD in chemical physics and biochemistry, both from Harvard University. Weiss was the first Science and Technology Advisor to the World Bank. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has taught at Princeton University, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Sao Paulo, Xing Hua University, and the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department. Weiss has also advised governments and lectured in more than two dozen countries. He is coeditor of Technology, Finance, and Development and Mobilizing Technology for Development, and he is co-author of Technological Innovation in Legacy Sector and Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction: Science, Technology, and Survival
Chapter 2: Stratospheric Ozone: A Success with Complications
Chapter 3: Climate Disruption, Not Just Global Warming
Chapter 4: How Do We Address Climate Disruption?
Chapter 5: Nuclear Issues: Civilization in the Balance
Chapter 6: Global Health: Security and Inequality
Chapter 7: Globalization and the Burden of Disease
Chapter 8: The Internet and Social Media: Euphoria and Repression
Chapter 9: Cyberwarfare and Cybersecurity
Chapter 10: Frugal Innovations for the “Bottom of the Pyramid”
Chapter 11: Jobs, Productivity, and Inequality: Up the Down Escalators in Manufacturing
Chapter 12: New Technologies, New Issues: Gene Drivers and Geoengineering
Chapter 13: Playing with Fire

Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Charles Weiss' new book tells a powerful series of technology policy stories in remarkable depth, yet they are also highly accessible and readable, a rare combination. The book is unusual — there nothing quite like it that I've seen in that pulls together technology strands and traditional policy territory." — William B. Bonvillian, Co-author of Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution

"Professor Weiss provides a thorough and authoritive analysis of the issues of S and T and their societal impacts, and sounds the alarm calling for international attention to these issues. This important work, authoritatively and comprehensively focussed on the existential issues of S, T, and S, deserves to be widely read and be listened to and acted upon by international decision makers." — Sidney Passman, Former Director of the UNESCO Division of Scientific Research and Director of the UNESCO Journal Impact

"Calamity is hard to face, but Weiss helps us do that. If pandemics or nuclear war do not get us, climate disruption will reach the tipping point and human society will never be the same. But Weiss shows us political tipping points as well, the ways our decision systems could still save us if we push them hard enough. As he writes, "the problem is that we are running out of time." After you read this book, you will be ready to act – quickly." — Susan Cozzens, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology

"Charles Weiss, the first science and technology adviser of the World Bank, points out that the new ongoing scientific and technological revolution cannot rely on serendipity regarding its consequences as it happened in the past. In this book, he proposes a recipe for a 'Survival Nexus,' where cooperation among nations and ethical considerations are essential." — José Goldemberg, Former Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil

From the Publisher