Edgar Mitchell and Joe Firmage on the Role of Science and Technology in a Wisdom Society

Mitchell and Firmage on the Role of Science and Technology in a Wisdom Society

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As leaders in their respective fields, former astronaut Edgar Mitchell and Web visionary Joe Firmage are well equipped to address the opportunities and challenges of science and technology. But what exactly is a “wisdom society” and what role should science and technology play in it?

Edgar suggests that wisdom is the amalgamation of our values, ethics, and morality, and proceeds to define these components: values represent what is important to us; ethics are how we treat each other and nature; morality is our sense of righteousness and goodness. Clearly we have problems – or at least severely different notions – in all these areas, both within American society and across the globe. What is more, our wisdom has not kept pace with our technology and science, to the detriment of ourselves and our planet. If civilization is to survive, it is critical that we become a wisdom society by developing an awareness of the intrinsic interrelatedness of mankind and nature. He aptly concludes with the Sanskrit proverb: “God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in the plants, walks in the animals, and thinks in man.”

Joe Firmage describes some of the amazing and powerful breakthroughs that science and technology will present in the very near future, but offers a sobering look at related dangers: ecological problems (as irreplaceable organs that sustain the tree of life are decaying and disappearing in real time) and sociological issues (intensifying ideological conflicts in a world of increasingly affordable and accessible weapons of mass destruction). From an economic standpoint, science and technology are fueling unbridled growth and consumption. It is essential that we move away from self-interest to collective interest, shed excess, and create a new social paradigm where economies monitor themselves for ethics, equitable balance, stable cycles, and environmental cleanliness.