BY PATRICK BRUSKIEWICH
VOLUME VIII ISSUE 1 NOVEMBER 2009
Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal
........ Dr. Sultan: The politicians are vulnerable to all sorts of snake oil salesman that come along and tell them this is the way to do it ... no, no, no do it this way. We want to convert the world to use wind power, or the current vogue, tidal power. Why not? Sounds good to me! So you come along and say well that's an option that can be done, but this is what it is going to cost. Others say, it really doesn't cost that much.
Patrick: What happens to the politicians that are caught in the middle?
Dr. Sultan: The politicians end up very confused! As I said, they can be persuaded to either defer any decision at all, which is I think what many politicians are inclined to do faced with uncertainty or to seize upon a solution and it may be years later before it is proven that wasn't a very good idea after all.
Patrick: Wouldn't a decision, no matter how uncertain, be sometimes better than no decision at all?
Dr. Sultan: As the world becomes what someone has described in a recent book a "flatter, hotter and more crowded" place the ability to quantify the trade offs ... in how we conduct our affairs ... I think becomes ever more important. We cannot fall back on unlimited resources as we have been inclined to do here in Canada or to think whatever we do, somehow things will work out ok. I think the margin of error is becoming thinner and we had better get it right, because if we don't get it right the consequences could be very bad for the human condition.
Patrick: What do you see in the road ahead?
Dr. Sultan: So, we have become more dependent on science and we hope that the politicians are smart enough to figure out what advice they should follow and what advice they should reject, as difficult as that may be. Interestingly, there are cases around the world where in fact scientists and engineers come to dominate political leadership, the most obvious example is in China, where until recently 100% percent of the membership of the Chinese Politburo, which runs this virtual dictatorship, has been made up of people with engineering training. And I think we see the consequences.
Patrick: In what way?
Dr. Sultan: "If we are going to build a high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing well we are going to do it and in fact we shall start in three months and have it done in eighteen months. Or we will build the world's tallest skyscraper."
Patrick: Or the world's biggest dam -the Three Gorges Dam.
Dr. Sultan: The Chinese have pole-vaulted to the front ranks of economic growth and now they are challenging the supremacy of the United States through the sheer magnitude of what they have accomplished. However, there is also a huge cost in terms of threatened stability, their civic institutions, some people get left behind. They clear the farmers off the fields and say, sorry a highway is coming through here and they don't worry too much about what these folks who have perhaps farmed those little plots of land for hundreds of years are going to do. Its not really part of their equation. Chinese engineers are going to get the job done and they do.
Patrick: What is that telling us?
Dr. Sultan: Even the Chinese are coming to the realization that you really need a blend of both approaches. You need people who have this humanist sensitivity while at the same time you need the engineers showing how to get the job done. I think the ideal government would in fact successfully blend those two approaches. And not just in an advisory capacity but in a decision making capacity.........
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