Science for the People Magazine Vol. 3, No. 1 - Socrates

As an example he cited the "universal desirability of understanding
the functional relationships between different
parts of the human brain" or perhaps even " ... of discovering
where in the brain centers for the control of different
kinds of behavior are located, ... " and yet
"The fact that these studies are financed heavily by the
U.S. Navy and Air Force, and the existence of colonies of
monkeys with brain electrodes at Holloman Air Force
Base and Edgewood Arsenal, would/ feel certain, strike
terror into the heart of any sensitive scientist who has
had a hand in the basic discoveries ... "
Novick, unlike so many speakers at the AAAS, did
not hesitate to draw the obvious conclusion from his
analysis:
"While we as scientists must endeaver vigorously to
make known our feeling on the uses of the results of our
research, history shows that much more is required if we
are to have a significant voice. It seems to me that if we
as scientific workers were to join with other workers and
organize ourselves at our places of work, we could be an
effective social force to resist the subordination of technological
progress to the purposes of private profit and
war-could use our knowledge to support demands that
the fruits of our research be used to serve real human
needs.
Not only scientific workers but other workers also
must learn to use their organizational power to prevent
misuse' of the end product of their labors-must learn to
demand more of their employers than just increase in
wages and benefits. It is high time, for example, that
workers in automobile factories demanded that their companies
produce safe, long-lasting, inexpensive cars and
worked to create economic conditions such that the fulfillment
of these demands would not cost them their jobs.
It is high time workers in war plants demanded an end to
the manufacture of bombs, tanks and missiles. It is about
time that workers in paper mills and power plants demanded
an end to the despoliation of water and air caused by
their factories, and it is about time that workers in chemical
plants refuse to produce napalm and phosphorus and
herbicides. "
Fred Commoner, Harvard freshman, and Nancy
Hicks, N.Y. Times science writer followed Novick. They
were also generally critical of Teller's position.
Stuart Newman of the University of Chicago began
his talk by pointing out that the panel title "Is there a
Generation Gap in Science"
" ... is a misleading question that encourages misguided
answers. There is certainly some kind of gap in science,
but it is a gap between those whom science is used for and
those whom it used against, between those who can appropriate
the product of science to increase their profit and
those from whom the profit is extracted, between those
who get to participate in science and those who are ex-
eluded. This gap is based on concrete social relations, not
in anything as transitory as age.
Nevertheless, the question is there to occupy our
efforts, decreed from above, as are many other questions
in scholarly and scientific circles. Problem for physics:
how can we best design a nuclear bomb? Problem
for chemistry: what is the most efficient defoliant for
jungles, or herbicides for rice paddies? Problem for
economics: assuming profits remain untouched, how
much unemployment is necessary to combat x amount
of inflation? Problem .for sociology: assuming the sanctity
of private ownership of industry, how can you best
give laborers a sense of participation in their work?
The problems for establishment scientific research
don't just .fall from the sky. They are part and parcel
of a social and economic system fraught with irreconcilable
antagonisms and contradictions. They are not
the problems of the majority of the people, but those
who want to keep the majority in line. "
Newman also referred to the quandry of concentration
on basic research.
''Those who think they can avoid these quandries
by concentrating on basic research should reflect on how
even this has been degraded by the technological, cost
efficient cast all U.S. science has taken on during the
years of the peak and decline of the American Empire.
Dr. Teller in his prepared statement mentioned that our
real understanding of nature has not appreciably increased
in the last 25 years, but he has obscured the causes by
not placing this fact in a proper context. We have no
theory of the atomic nucleus, but we can certainly meddle
with it enough to make.great bombs. We have no theory
of biological organization or development, but we're on
the verfie of genetic engineering. Quantum mechanics has
no consistent realistic interpretation, but who cares, as
lonfi as we can build lasers for communication and counterinsurgency.
If we can manipulate and technologize,
to hell with the understanding, or so the .funding would
indicate, and so the students are taught. "
Like Novick, Newman didn't hesitate to follow his
own analysis. He introduced The People's Peace Treaty
with these remarks:
"At this point, since radicals are often accused of
criticizing and offering no programs, I will read an example
of an experimental proposal for a social scientific
problem which is one that the majority of the American
people want solved, but which a minority want to keep
them from solving. This problem is being worked on by
many people, some younger, some older, and to solve it
it is necessary to have a scientific understanding of how
our society operates. The problem is: how do we end
the war in Vietnam?"
H. F.
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Science for the People