"We want to arouse young scientists' sensitivity towards the social and political implications of their actions," outlined Daniel Strassberg from the Lion Foundation, which initiated this week, the aim of the Summer School entitled "Shaping the Future: Science as Intervention“. At the concluding event Strassberg told the 200 assembled guests and participants that it was of paramount importance to be aware in how far our daily lives and our democratically achieved formulation of political demands and objectives were "impregnated" by scientific thought. Naturally, these underlying dependencies were not only the affair of the 20 young scientists from nine countries and a range of disciplines in Ittingen, they were also of general interest. For example, in the 20th century when atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, research was robbed of its innocence and, in one fell swoop, it was manifest what horrific consequences can be brought about by so-called progress in certain constellations. The following generations of physicists could not refrain from considering the possible dilemma-laden–perhaps devastating–consequences of their good intentions and well-meant actions.

Weighty consequences of knowledge

ETH President Olaf Kübler was one such young physicist; in his address he took up the thread of this discourse. As a young researcher it was the cultural environment more than his direct environment that had given him the impetus for self-reflection. In Heinar Kipphardt's documentary theatre piece, "The Affair of J. Robert Oppenheimer“ (1964), for instance, the creative urge of the researchers and ethical doubts in the figure of the "father" of the atom bomb, clashed head on in a paradigmatic manner, providing the subject-matter of numerous discussions. The philosopher Hannah Arendt, said Kübler, delivered one of the most significant commentaries on the subject entitled "Homo Faber's time is up“.

Indeed, in science, whether consciously or not, processes were always being set in train and their reach and danger potential must be carefully considered and taken more strongly into account when the consequences of research activities were assessed. Was it guaranteed that, confronted with our interest for knowledge, a system could maintain its balance? Today, the president of ETH went on to say, it was probably the Life Sciences that set the agenda in the dispute surrounding research and responsibility. As an example of this, Kübler cited the ETH field trials with genetically modified wheat, which Greenpeace, among others, had opposed.

Political priorities

How does the relationship between science and society present itself from a political point of view, and, above all, where does politics put the emphasis? The audience waited eagerly to hear what Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin had to say in his talk (which, he took care to say, he had written himself). He started with the observation that attempts to govern a state following a single concept had always failed. Couchepin drew an example from antiquity in the person of Plato, who failed in his plan to carry through the implementation of his idea of a state. Over the course of history, the uniform–in other words totalitarian–organisation of states, whether motivated by religion or ideology, have been seen to fail. The skepticism showered on hermetic constructs that promised paradise, said Couchepin, had to be brought to bear, not only on politics but also, and especially, on science.

Appeals for a socially responsible and engaged scientific activity: Federal Councillor and Minister for Home Affairs Pascal Couchepin concluding the Summer School. large

Couchepin attested that, in principle, science was guided by humane objectives and served the community–which, in its turn, could not exist without it. A high degree of freedom, anchored in the constitution mirrored its importance and the trust that was placed in the hands of scientists. For him, however, one thing was clear: precisely because science moved within and not outside society, its big questions had to be decided by engaging in public debate.

There was no alternative to this democratic way of proceeding, said Couchepin, particularly in Switzerland. Again, this meant that, in the end, society and politics had to decide which research would serve them. This task, according to the Home Affairs Minister, cannot be delegated to an ethics commission either; ultimately it had to be decided by the public.

Machines shape the image of man

Can the view of the politician be brought into tune with the results of the Summer School? After recounting something of the concrete questions that had been studied on the interdependency of science and the commonplace, in closing his address, Daniel Strassberg, indicated that the participants had reached a less optimistic conclusion. Gabriel Curio, for instance, neurologist from Berlin, reported on the work accomplished in his group that had connected the human brain directly to a computer. The position of the cursor had been changed solely by the power of thought in order to move an artificial limb or a wheelchair. But it did not end with this promising implication. It was quite disconcerting when the arm of the test person moved quicker on the monitor than his real arm, because the machine "reads" the muscle quicker than the mind. With regard to the consequences of this, the question arose of what our image of man as human beings means if a thought-reading machine could short circuit, ad absurdum, concepts such as "free will" or "individual responsibility".

Circumvention of politics?

The influence of economics on our daily lives was analysed as less disturbing, but not less effective. A single theory, said Strassberg, namely that of free trade, had achieved such a dominant position that it dictated politics the directives to organise trade. Further elucidation on the relationship between society at large and science was promised within the focus "Communication and Science": a comparative analysis of two Hollywood movies, "Gorillas in the Mist“, showing human contact with mountain gorillas, and "Contact“ the same with extraterrestrials. The philologist Johannes Fehr from the Collegium and the historian Gesine Krüger from the University of Zurich, portrayed how both films reflected the optimism of science–that not only promised to solve all the big problems of the human race–but also furnished a universal language with which to do so. The event seems to have shown that such a circumvention of the political aspect would be a delusive undertaking.