Abstract
In this talk I will weave together two themes that I have been developing in my
recent work. One is the highly uneven progress that has been made in different
arenas of human know-how. The other is the intertwining in practice of what I
have called "social" technologies and "physical" technologies. The connections I
weave are two-fold. First, it has proved far harder to advance social
technologies, and here I include modes of organization and management and broad
public policies, than physical technologies. Second, for that reason halting
progress, or even unfortunate choices regarding, needed supporting social
technologies often are a serious constraint on the benefits society gets from
powerful new physical technologies. Gary Pisano will join me in exploring
whether what has been going on in pharmaceutical biotech is a case in point.
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