Lewis M. Branscomb

Branscomb's principal theme is that the benefits of science do not flow freely out of the laboratory; rather, superior advances come into our lives because people - in industry, universities, and government - anticipate the future and cooperate to achieve desirable ends. "Technology," says Branscomb, "is an expression of the values of the society that creates and uses it.". Branscomb takes us on a tour of emerging information technologies - computer software, electronic libraries, video disks, and the information "superhighway" - always exploring the way people are affected. He asks, "How can a democratic society bring the culture and values of science to the wise management of the technologies that shape our lives?". This is a searching odyssey by one of the nation's most astute navigators along the paths taken by science and technology since the Second World War. Share his vision of how we can use both science and politics to improve the prospects for humankind.

"Shortly after taking office in 1993, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore called for a shift in American technology policy toward an expansion of public investments in partnerships with private industry, backed up by scientific research in universities and national laboratories." "The authors of this volume were invited by the Clinton administration to take a hard, nonpartisan look at how successful the new policies have been and to propose ways to make their programs more effective and more likely to attract bipartisan support. The first summary report of the team's recommendations, released in April 1997, was called the "hottest technology policy property on Capitol Hill."" "This book, an expansion of that report, offers a new set of technology policy principles. These principles provide guidelines for stimulating technical innovation, shaping public-private partnerships, and establishing criteria for federal investments in research. The authors use the principles to evaluate many federal research programs and to make recommendations for change."--BOOK JACKET.