Humanity’s Challenges and Breakthroughs in Science and Technology That May Help – Part 6

In this, the final posting in this six-part series that looks at the challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, we focus on governance, governments, science, technology and the synergies or lack thereof. It is clear today that for humanity to solve the problems we face we need good governance. Yet what is becoming abundantly evident of late is that our planet is not just facing a crisis of climate and pandemic but also one of leadership as citizens increasingly lose faith in the institutions that govern them.

How so? The global pandemic should have been science’s finest hour. Instead, it turned into a battle between anti-science and pro-science supporters with those in political charge swaying to and fro between them. The same has been true for the issue of anthropogenic climate change. There is an ongoing battle between anti-science and those who have been persuaded by the evidence, and many who govern us demonstrate they cannot distinguish fact from fiction.

Why so many are anti-science today points to a growing social malaise fed by a global Internet where misinformation abounds, and where counter-narratives are given undue prominence of place because they increase webpage hits.

Ubiquitous capacity to deliver information to billions of small screens has changed the way it is disseminated to most of us. Social media, as we have learned this past week, has created algorithms to stoke flames of discontent, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Indeed, the FUD factor is alive and well for not just the United States, but Canada, the European Union, and other democracies. Where FUD is less effective is in autocracies like China and Russia that carefully control the communication mechanisms and the messages delivered to citizens. In these states, it isn’t technology that disseminates alternative narratives, it is online content getting past sensors and firewalls. It is word-of-mouth and smuggled content that gets past borders.

The crisis of governance has only just begun. Populists like Donald Trump have shown us that there is no good dividend to be harvested from misinformation. In some federal states like the U.S., and Canada, misinformation tears at the nation’s very fabric and demonizes its validity. In other countries, breakaway movements are becoming more vocal in opposition to the state. Check out the less-than United Kingdom of Great Britain with Scotland and Northern Ireland reconsidering their union status. Or Spain, where Catalonian and Basque nationalists increasingly attempt to break from the country.

Climate change with rising seas may soon overwhelm Pacific and Indian Ocean island states causing them to vanish from the map. And as atmospheric temperatures continue to climb a number of equatorial and Middle Eastern states may see large swaths of their geography uninhabitable by the end of the century. Yet many in today’s governments are loath to address these futures.

Then there is the impact of climate change on agriculture. Where science and technology have answers to securing future harvests through genetics and tools like CRISPR, the purveyors of anti-science in and out of government rise up in unison to declare these discoveries “Frankenfoods.”

How can science help?

The challenge for science has always been one of communication and education. As a person who reads many scientific journal letters, articles, and papers, I sometimes believe that science writers are aliens from another planet speaking a language unfamiliar to Earthlings. But there is help on the way. A growing movement in the scientific community to address this has come up with a solution providing two abstracts, the summary documents that precede a paper or journal article, as a preface to articles and papers. The first is aimed at the lay public using language most of us can comprehend. The second abstract is technobabble understood by fellow scientists. Such efforts, so far, are few and far between.

One of the reasons that motivated me to start this blog some 12 years ago, was to get past scientific and technobabble and convey progress in a wide range of fields in a way the average reader could understand. Alan Alda, the American actor, has been on a similar quest. He offers a course for scientists to educate them on how to educate us. His book, “If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?” is one every scientist publishing new and vital research, should read and digest. But if you don’t have the time to read Alan’s book, here is my plug. Just stick to reading this blog because here you can begin to understand what these amazing scientists are discovering

• to help us not only defeat the current and future pandemics,
• to stop and begin to reverse global warming,
• to end hunger and disease,
• and to share with us other new and exciting research and discoveries with implications for all of humanity.

How can technology creators help?

If I said “Google good, Facebook bad,” would you agree?

I use a Google app on my Android smartphone that tracks my vital signs and makes suggestions as to how I can improve my lifestyle to become healthier. I’m not bound to follow it, but it is sometimes a very useful thing. And Google Search and Google Alerts bring me much of the information that I use in my research to write these postings.

Google Search has changed how we access knowledge globally. It is an evolving encyclopedia with vast accumulations of digital content that changes constantly. Anyone with a digital screen and access to the Internet has the sum of all encyclopedias at his or her fingertips. Google makes lots of money delivering these apps to us. But the company’s mission remains to make information accessible and ubiquitous.

Then there is Facebook and other social media applications. Facebook professes to be a vetted and honest broker of information, with its newsfeeds monitored for disinformation and hate speech, a place to share friendships virtually, and a way to stay in touch with family. But Facebook started off as a dorm room venture by testosterone-laden college students looking to rate which girls on campus were hot or not. That’s why it has “likes.” Now it is a profit maker with close to 3 billion monthly users and an addictive enormous distraction to many who don’t realize they are being sucked in. The mission of Facebook has never been more than trying to get as many eyeballs as possible regardless of the information being conveyed.

The planet doesn’t need more Facebooks. It needs technology to help solve the problems of our age. It needs information disseminators that are trusted sources. It needs apps that can help individuals achieve outcomes that move all of us forward collectively.

Two examples come readily to mind. I have been a member of the Kiva.org community of lenders who through $25 microloans have been raising the economic fortunes of entrepreneurs and their families in Developing World countries. Another is the social media app, SEEDS, an online community contributing to the common good with digital currency rewards not designed for speculators, but for recognizing sustainable initiatives and outcomes.

A final word about governance where I believe we are witnessing a paucity of policy based on scientific evidence. The Ontario government here in Canada where I live, today announced that, even though pandemic numbers are coming down very slowly and ICU beds remain filled, it is time to end attendance restrictions at stadiums, and other large gathering places. To go, attendees just have to show they have been vaccinated. Over 82% of eligible Ontarians have received two shots.

What’s so strange about the decision is that it comes at the moment when the government is launching its re-election campaign. I gather popularity is the point and not scientific reasoning. Meanwhile, I stood in line outside a small bakery this morning which like many other businesses isn’t allowed unrestricted numbers to enter its store. The bakery was allowed based on square footage only 2 customers in the store at any time. I needed to wear a mask to go inside, and to keep social distancing.

It seems circuses (big venues with entertainment) are winning out over bread in the decision-making processes of Ontario’s political leaders. There will be little social distancing at arenas. And considering food and drink consumption, masks won’t be on faces for very long. There is no science to back going to unrestricted capacity at sporting events. But there is for the small business owners who are being told that science is the reason for the restrictions that encumber them.