Topic Summary

Fundamental insights of science not infrequently meet with strong reservations and a sense of mistrust in the population at large. Academia Engelberg aims to do its part in helping the basic conditions to become established for a new sense of trust through a dialogue between science and the public.

The conference, from 15 to 17 October 2003, will focus on the global theme “Pervasive Computing”. Thanks to the microprocessors in everyday objects, data exchange is becoming ever more complex and difficult to control. Comprehensive “informationization” and networking are already technically possible. Yet what effects will this have on society? The complexity of these issues is the subject of the 2nd Dialogue Science and Trust of the Academia Engelberg from 15 to 17 October 2003 in Engelberg, Switzerland.

1. Science and Public Trust
A Discourse for Society, Ecology and Economy

The Rise of Modernism: Between the 15th and 17th centuries, a “New Science” replaces aristotelic metaphysics: the traditional learning process through commenting authorities was increasingly dominated by scientific observation and experimentation. Over the centuries this new science separated from mystical practices as well as from philosophy (idealism) and its monopoly claim. Science lost its contemplative aspects; it was transformed into a profession (Max Weber). A lot of good elements were built on this development, such as modern and liberal democracy. But negative social and cultural implications were far-reaching. All sectors of life were usurped by science resulting into scientism because science could not deal with immeasurable qualities such as pre-industrial and religious traditions which weakened considerably. Finally in this new vacuum it was wrongly believed science could indicate the cultural way. The widespread loss of meaning, the monopoly of scientific and impersonal “it” language became dominant.

“Science and technology” has become a new structure of action and interaction whose successes remain unquestioned, be it during the Industrial Revolution or in the material wealth of the post-war Western World. These experiences strengthened an optimistic belief in progress, which still has an important role today that should be enhanced by social and cultural aspects..

The Upcoming Post Modernism: The consensus regarding the unchallenged belief in an exclusive technological progress began to fade in the 1970s. Values and cultural perspectives began to change in the industrial world. The trend towards individual development and creativity was paralleled with a new perception of negative ecological tendencies, including some memorable catastrophic events caused by modern technology.

A growing cultural dissent on evaluating science, technology and economy calls for more participation among the major players of good will. The upcoming concepts concerning the limits of growth (Club of Rome 1973) are based on a new perception of environmental pressure, the destruction of nature, seen as the aftermath of uncontrolled science and technology development. Science and technology need to be legitimized under these new perspectives. This is the background for a newly-developed critical civil society which started as a grass roots movement and consolidated as professional NGOs.

2. Pervasive Computing – Living in the world of invisible chips

Thanks to the microprocessors in everyday objects, data exchange is becoming ever more complex and difficult to control. Compre-hensive “in-formationization” and networking are already technically possible. Yet what effects will this have on society? The complexity of these issues is the subject of the 2nd Dialogue Science and Trust of the Academia Engelberg from 15 to 17 October 2003 in Engelberg, Switzerland.

The focus in the global theme of “Pervasive Computing” lies not so much on tech-nological aspects. What interests the Academia Engelberg much more are the ef-fects on social, ethical, economic and ecological development. The term “Pervasive Computing”, and also "Ubiquitous Computing", was coined in 1988. It was then that the vision was first formulated of omnipresent data processing and smart objects.

It is an idea that envisages thousands of the most minute microprocessors linked to each other by radio and built into objects of everyday use, without them being visi-ble. Fitted with sensors, these microscopically small com-puters are capable of de-tecting the surrounding environment of the object in which they are implanted – and with which they merge to form a single object. This confers on the objects an ability to process and independently communicate information. They acquire a new quality; namely, the knowledge of where they are, what other objects are in their vicinity and what happened to them in the past.

Omnipresent pervasion

Without people noticing, microprocessors today are becoming an increasingly per-vasive part of our everyday lives. Vacuum cleaners, mobile phones, digital cameras, lifts and telecommunications equipment already feature mini-computers which independently exchange information without any human instructions being neces-sary. The car alone has up to 60 computers in it to ensure that the fuel injection is working perfectly, the airbag is released at the right time, or the navigation system can find the right address. In the mobile phone, for example, the location of the owner can be established at any time. But it is here that the problems of “Pervasive Computing“ become manifest: Where are the limits of this omnipresent pervasive-ness? In the car this kind of support is useful and makes goods sense, but pin-pointing the location of a mobile phone already smacks of control and is a massive infringement of privacy.

Conveying information, creating transparency

What appears technically quite feasible, has huge ethical and legal consequences. It is also difficult to predict the con-sequences for individual social behaviour and for the classical forms of communication between individuals – such as verbal dis-course or written correspondence. Academia Engelberg aims to address these themes at its international congress in October 2003. based on developments in practice, about 130 personally invited representatives from science, business, soci-ety and politics will meet in Engelberg to exchange ideas on the core issues sur-rounding the protection of privacy, data security, social changes, and also possible business applications.

The aim is to deepen mutual understanding in a discursive dialogue by means of “Open Space Technology” and to elaborate a set of demands and projects. Based on introductory papers, the presentation of concrete examples and workshops, the Academia Engelberg fosters dialogue on issues of the future, so that science and society can find common paths to cope with these issues in a positive way.

3. Open Space Technology

“Open Space Technology“ was developed in the mid-80s, by the American Harrison Owen. He was excited by the enormous potential of progressive approaches to problem-solving which emerged at conferences thanks to this form of organization. And this is how it worked: After an introductory paper on the general theme – in our case “Pervasive Computing“ – the conference participants are called on to indicate on a pin-board those aspects which especially interest them and which they would like to discuss with like-minded people or opponents. This phase is followed by the “marketplace”, where all participants are called on to enter their names for workshops on those as-pects to which they would like to make a constructive contribution.

Open Workshops

This open kind of organization encourages the formation of spontaneous groups not only across all scientific disciplines but also among a varied mix of representatives from the worlds of business, politics and culture. Facilitator of these workshops is generally the person who suggested the topic. What everyone has in common is an interest in the particular theme of the workshop. This form offers participants the opportunity to make new contacts or to deepen relations already established. Thanks to the active role of all participants, sound approaches to problem-solving generally emerge in these spontaneously composed workshops.

Presentation and evaluation

The results are not only recorded in writing, but also presented in the plenum. It is then up the participants of the conference to evaluate the presented approaches to problem-solving and to propose concrete projects for further development. This interdisciplinary procedure leads to the emergence of projects which have a high potential for realization and are supported by everyone involved.