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not only greater participation of scientists and engineers, but also more 

 means for obtaining objective and credible analysis available to the public, 

 and more involvement of the private sector in the public analysis and debates 

 on these issues. The government has an important stake in seeing that the 

 scientific and technological communities are genuinely involved in the tasks 

 of governance; more efforts need to be expended to bring it about. 



It should go without saying that participation alone is not enough; 

 scientists and engineers do not have, on the basis of their professional 

 training, superior credentials for making policy decisions. They are no more 

 free of bias than are other segments of society. No issue turns on 

 technological facts alone, though some are more dependent on technologcal 

 considerations than others. 



Participation by the scientific and technological communities implies a 

 commitment to understand the interaction between science and technology and 

 the broader aspects of policy, and a commitment of time that makes such 

 understanding possible. A technocratic approach to the making of policy is 

 not an improvement over the present situation. 



It is worth observing that one of the effects of science and technology on 

 both national and international affairs is to make the future much more 

 relevant to the present than in earlier periods of human history. To an 

 unprecedented degree, today's policy must be made in the light of anticipation 

 of future developments, particularly in science and technology themselves, or 

 in the side effects of increasingly technological societies. The importance 

 of more efforts at credible, objective anticipation of the future are obvious. 



