This essay is intended as a partial summary of thoughts expressed at this Conference, a brief review of other related work and some thoughts on a general framework within which the main issue, the social responsibility of the technical community, can be considered. Frequent and extensive use has been made of recent work by A. Edel (2), Daniel Callahan (3) and others.
We begin with a sense of optimism. We should probably all agree with John Cogley when he wrote in Center Magazine that the past decade was "one of the most turbulent, strife-ridden, unhappy periods in American life. The earlier consensus seemed to have broken down completely. Hatred and suspicion stalked the land, though there probably never was more public talk about love. Forces new to American life were unleashed, terrifying to the old, unsettling for those who had thought they had achieved stability, and bruising for t,he young. If there is such a thing as cultural revolution, this was it." And yet on balance, some things have improved. It is probably no surprise that progress has been made in the U.S. in economic, social and material well-being and in the situation of its disadvantaged cit'izens. But, who would have
predicted the following items (1) :
-. . The Lake Erie (not quite dead) Department. On July 23, 1973, Larry Eisenhauer caught a 34-in. 12$-lb muskellunge in Lake Erie at the mouth of a creek that runs through the Lackawanna steel plant. According to the Bufialo Evening News, it was the biggest muskie caught in the area since 1946. In 1972, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, in eastern Pennsylvania, reported it's biggest count of migrating goshawks since 1935-a 46 per cent increase over the previous record. In 1973, spotters counted the most sharpshin hawks since 1939 and the most golden ea)gles since 1958. New York City newspapers have been reporting vastly improved fishing in the Hudson River, now cleaner than it has been for perhaps 50 yr, Even the shad and bass are running in the Hudson. While this should hardly be taken as justification for self-congratulation, it does a,ppear that difficult problems are soluble and environmental damages reversible. No need on earth is greater than the need to improve the human condition and the basic essential equipment in that task is confidence. We accept the basic admonition of Jay Forrester that the planet is finite and technological prudence is the order of the day and, in fact, suggest a line of