[tt] [NSG] Re: Fwd: [Esdcommunity] Reminder: RSVP to Take the Pledge! Nov 8, 6:30-8pm

Wed Nov 7 16:16:52 UTC 2007

----- Forwarded message from Dave Lindbergh <lindbergh at 92F1.com> -----

From: Dave Lindbergh <lindbergh at 92F1.com>
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:36:51 -0500
To: Fred Hapgood <hapgood at pobox.com>
Cc: Nanotechnology Study Group <nsg at marshome.org>
Subject: [NSG] Re: Fwd: [Esdcommunity] Reminder: RSVP to Take the Pledge! 
 Nov 8, 6:30-8pm
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.1.0.9
Reply-To: Nanotechnology Study Group <nsg at marshome.org>

Re-reading this, I see that it isn't as verbose as I'd remembered.

The real problem with this (red text below, colored by me) that 
generated my "ugh" response is (and I'll try to be brief,) the 
implicit presumption that working scientists and engineers are 
CAPABLE of evaluating the "social and environmental consequences" of 
what they're doing.  (And, of their efforts to "improve" them.)

It's fun to sit around and speculate on such consequences, but the 
real world is immensely complex and the consequences of any given 
action are extremely hard to predict.  (Especially the 2nd, 3rd, and 
n-th order consequences, which are often ignored but much more 
significant than the immediate effects.)

Of course, society needs a mechanism to steer action in useful 
directions and to discourage anti-social and environment damaging actions.

The ONLY mechanism for doing this in a complex modern society that 
has proved effective so far is the marketplace.  F.A. Hayek's later 
work famously focused on this, but very briefly - prices carry 
information.  In a properly functioning society, those wishing to 
consume "goods" bid up prices, and those creating "bads" must pay a 
price (again, market-determined) ultimately associated with making 
other people absorb those "bads".  Getting this right is difficult 
(and has never been done perfectly) but doing it even as badly as we 
do has, historically, worked far better than any other method so far tried.

What generated my "ugh" response was the naive notion that personal 
conscience can be in any way a substitute or improvement on the 
distributed information processing that occurs in the 
marketplace.  On the contrary, the road to hell is usually paved with 
such good intentions.

I'd like to think the MIT community is sophisticated enough to 
understand these basic ideas that the science of economics has so 
laboriously discovered over the last 250 years.  But it seems not.

--Dave

At 10:49 AM 10/29/2007, Dave Lindbergh wrote:
>ugh

>At 11:37 AM 10/29/2007, Fred Hapgood wrote:
>
>>http://www.BostonScienceAndEngineeringLectures.com
>>http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood
>>
>>----- Original message -----
>>From: "Christopher Sequeira" <csequeir at mit.edu>
>>To: "ESD Community" <esdcommunity at mit.edu>
>>Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:01:07 -0400
>>Subject: [Esdcommunity] Reminder: RSVP to Take the Pledge!  Nov 8,
>>6:30-8pm
>>
>>== Take The Pledge! ==
>>With Aerospace Engineering senior Nicki Lehrer, Founder and President of
>>non-profit foundation Children of Guayaquil Inc.
>>(www.ChildrenOfGuayaquil.org)
>>
>>November 8, 6:30 - 8pm RSVP by Nov 4 at:
>>http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=gPh3p_2biNbWpPvAPPj4trsg_3d_3d
>>
>>
>>"I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental
>>consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects
>>of any organization for which I work."
>>
>>At MIT we create innovations to help humanity &#8211; from business
>>strategies, to clean energy technologies, and everything in between.
>>However, to truly build a sustainable, abundant, and just world, we must
>>make social and environmental awareness a personal lifestyle.
>>
>>The Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility encourages grad
>>students and undergrads to practice socio-environmental responsibility
>>in their courses, research, internships, and future careers. It began at
>>Humbolt State University 20 years ago and is now recognized at schools
>>across the world as a privilege and an honor to uphold.
>>
>>We will offer the Pledge to MIT students on November 8th. Pledge-takers
>>will form groups to meet throughout the academic year and connect with
>>knowledge, careers, leadership opportunities, and one another.  Our
>>keynote speaker will be Aerospace Engineering senior Nicki Lehrer,
>>founder of Children Of Guayaquil, Inc. which is an organization that
>>provides education to Ecuadorian street children.
>>
>>Please RSVP by November 4th.  We hope that you will take the Pledge!
>>
>>The MIT Pledge Effort is supported by Students for Global
>>Sustainability, the Technology and Culture Forum, and the MIT Energy
>>Initiative's Education Office.
>>
>>http://sustainability.mit.edu/Pledge
>>_______________________________________________
>>Esdcommunity mailing list Esdcommunity at mit.edu
>>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/esdcommunity

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