1769 



be compatible with the local culture and that it be effectively trans- 

 mitted to those who are motivated to make best use of it. Ideally, the 

 leadership in extending the technology to these users should also be 

 supplied locally rather than from outside. 



In short, for the large part of the world where development is more 

 an aspiration than an accomplished fact, high technology would not 

 appear to be of major value. On the other hand, there would appear 

 to be great scope for the adaptation of low technology to the special 

 needs, circumstances, and cultures of such regions. Even in the more 

 highly developed regions of the world, there is likely to be more scope 

 for the introduction of basic technology of agriculture, forestry, mining, 

 materials processing, manufacturing, and waste recycling, than for 

 the application of specialized and costly items of high technology. 

 The principle of multinational regionalism in the diplomatic context of 

 1976 offers no more attractive target than the energy-rich but water- 

 deprived region of the Middle East. The potential economic and diplo- 

 matic gains that might accrue from a shared enterprise involving Israel 

 with Arab neighbors make this a tempting if immediately, unlikely 

 prospect. 



CASE five: exploiting the resources of the seabed 



It is rather difficult to characterize the evolving technology of 

 mineral extraction from the surface or subsurface of the deep ocean 

 floor as either "high" or "low" technology. That it is a demanding 

 enterprise is beyond question. But the problems involve engineering 

 more than science, and the products must be quantitative to be 

 meaningful. 



The Mohole Project^'" was a major scientific undertaking. But the 

 science lay in what was to be discovered by drilling deeply in the ocean 

 bottom, rather than in the mechanics of the operation. When even- 

 tually that project was laid aside, it was because less ambitious and 

 vastly less costly projects were accounted more likely to 3deld valuable 

 scientific information than would have been secured by a single drilling 

 to the Earth's mantle. 



In essence, the exploitation of the resources of the seabed calls for 

 elaboration of present engineering practice to a different and more 

 exacting environment. It will be difficult, and the first rewards are 

 likely to be marginal, but the technology involved is that of the pe- 

 troleum and mineral extraction industries, rather than some new tech- 

 nology evolved out of the scientific laboratory. 



If the recovery of resources from the seabed is judged a problem of 

 low technology, the same is not necessarily true of the problem of 

 protecting the ocean environment from the consequences. Both high 

 technology for surveillance and political innovations for control are 

 a likely further requirement. Satellite monitoring of oceanic pollution 

 is one obvious implication of seabed mining. 



However, the intractable nature of seabed ownership or sovereignty 

 owes more to the traditional dilemma of an international commons. 



*"' U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Technical Informatinn for Congress, a re- 

 port to the Suhcdmmittee on Science, Research, and Development of the Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1969, pp. 161-192. 



