613 



application of the contents of the physical, life, and behavioral 

 sciences." ^ 



In Part I of this study, technology was described as "the cutting 

 edge of science." It is the point in the system of scientific inquiry and 

 application at which tangible and material impacts occur upon human 

 affairs, and the point at which economic and political decisions are 

 required. Expressed another way, technology is the rational use of 

 knowledge about man's universe, while science is the process of discov- 

 ering additional pieces of that knowledge. 



Notable changes have taken place, over the past several decades, 

 in the role of technology in the United States. Tlie years 1950-1970 

 might perhaps be described as a "Golden Age of Technology" in this 

 country. The changes can be described along five general headings 

 of pace^ sise, coTJiplexity, variety or scope, and range and pei'vasive- 

 ness of iTTipacts.^ 



PACE 



Speaking as Special Assistant to the President for Science and Tech- 

 nology, in 1960, George B. Kistiakowsky declared: "What is new 

 today is the rapidity with which the developments of science are alter- 

 ing the human condition, the rapidity with wliich policy, particularly 

 foreign policy, must adjust to the changes being wrought by the pace 

 of scientific advance. Not only adjust — policy must prepare for, must 

 predict, the impact of scientific discovery and must also in some sense 

 attempt to guide it." ® 



The rate at which technological innovations have been introduced 

 into the American culture has been a factor of the large postwar in- 

 creases in the public investment in scientific research. It has also re- 

 sulted from large public expenditures in related, areas (defense, space, 

 and atomic energy) and supporting fields (communications and in- 

 formation processing). Acceptance of such innovations is a factor, 

 also, of the extensive public education in scientific subjects. 



The increased pace of change increases the rate at which interna- 

 tional issues, problems, and opportunities arise. It confronts the diplo- 

 mat with an ever-lengthening agenda, the need for a deeper under- 

 standing of the processes of change, and the requirement for a great 

 increase in the orderly flow of exact information concerning its 

 ingredients. 



SIZE 



Although historical achievements in technology have sometimes 

 approached heroic proportions (the Pyramids, Eoman roads, the 

 Great Wall of China, and the Panama Canal, for example) , the size 

 and cost of some of the modem technological systems is quite unprec- 

 edented. Most notable are those in the field of military hardware, 



* Erich Jantsch. "Technological Forecasting in Perspective : A framework for tech- 

 nological forecasting, its techniques and organisation ; a description of activities and an- 

 notated bibliography by Erich Jantsch, consultant to the OECD. (Paris, Organisation for 

 Economic Co-operation and Development, 1967), page 15. 



5 This enlarges somewhat on a statement by Herman Pollack, (then) Acting Director, 

 International Scientific and Technological Affairs, Department of State, at a Colloquium on 

 Science and Human Affairs, University of Illinois, May 17, 1967. He said, in part : "We are 

 in the midst of a technological revolution without precedent In its combination of scale, 

 pace, and impace on the offices of men. The crucial element in that combination is pace. . . ." 



« Address to American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers, 

 reprinted In "Department of State Bulletin," (February 22, 1960), page 276. 



