[10975] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: Jacques Le'vy, Dir. Ecole des Mines de Paris
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Thu Jan 16 21:47:55 1997
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 19:02:36 -0600 (CST)
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FYI France for January, 1997: this issue contains --
1) FYI France Online Service update -- http://www.fyifrance.com
2) "Towards a New Global Technology Order for a Global Society?", by
Jacques Le'vy, Directeur, Ecole des Mines de Paris and Pre'sident,
Confe'rence des Grandes Ecoles
XXX
1) FYI France Online Service update -- http://www.fyifrance.com
On January 1 the FYI France Online Service began its subscriptions, so
that now you need a password to reach most of the content files. No
password is needed, though, for the index and home pages; and during the
month of January both "File 5 Book - Dealers in France" and "File 9
Internet Training & Consulting" are free - of - charge. Since Dec 15,
additions have included:
1.00 Print Libraries in France 2 entries revised
2.00 Digital Libraries in France 2 new entries
3.00 E-Newsletter and Archive issues of Dec 15, Dec 18
4.00 Publishers in France 21 new entries & 5 updated
5.00 Book - Dealers in France 9 new entries & 2 revised
6.00 Calendar -- 6 new entries
8.00 la Francophonie -- 1 new entry
9.00 Internet Training & Consulting 1 new entry
Venez nous visiter!
XXX
2) "Towards a New Global Technology Order for a Global Society?", by
Jacques Le'vy, Directeur, Ecole des Mines de Paris and Pre'sident,
Confe'rence des Grandes Ecoles
M. Jacques Le'vy -- who has contributed the piece which appears in this
issue of FYI France, occupies a unique position in France, and in higher
education generally.
He is the Director of the Ecole des Mines de Paris, and, as such, is one
of the pre - eminent educators of France; and by virtue of the great
influence of the grandes e'coles in that country he has far greater direct
effect on national policy - makers, and on policy itself, than most other
educators anywhere might hope to have.
M. Le'vy is, in addition, the President of the Confe'rence des Grandes
Ecoles, an organization which coordinates and promotes the cooperative
activities of all the over 100 "Grandes Ecoles" now in operation in
France. He is becoming a spokesperson for the aspirations of higher
education internationally, through the increasingly - international role
played by the Confe'rence des Grandes Ecoles, and the increasingly -
international cooperation which characterizes basic and applied research,
industrial development, and teaching. He discusses all of these things, in
the context of the May Sophia Antipolis Symposium -- please see
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/IS3/ -- in his article which follows:
"Towards a New Global Technology Order for a Global Society?"
by Jacques Le'vy, Directeur, Ecole des Mines de Paris
and Pre'sident, Confe'rence des Grandes Ecoles
[translated by Jack Kessler]
** Introduction
The foundering of the Soviet Empire has completely overturned the
conventional wisdoms of economics and politics. The possibility of yet
another such historical rupture never can be excluded. But we can go
beyond just saying that these things are unpredictable by definition. It
is possible to hope that the mechanisms of international regulation and
negotiation, however imperfect they might be, will succeed in controlling
things if the need arises. And some predictions may be made, by reasoning
from the current situation.
One can observe the growth of two antagonistic forms of logic. On one
hand, modern technologies go together well with the general political
trend toward encouraging mobility and accelerating exchanges of work and
ideas. Barriers everywhere are coming down, progressively. Business firms,
therefore, are more free to put strategies of alliance and networks into
place, strategies which appreciably improve the firms' efficiency.
But, through this, competition -- the irreplaceable motor of progress --
is exacerbated. The consequences, which are devastating for employment as
they are for the environment, place governments in situations which become
more and more delicate. For it is up to government to manage social peace
at the local level: the good government of democratic institutions, but
now subject to the effects of global constraints which are out of
government's control.
It therefore would be reasonable to have, to help with these questions, a
form of cooperation which -- from the authority of regulations accepted by
all -- would provide a "preventive medicine" capable of anticipating and
avoiding crises. As Schumpeter said, the brakes of a car are there to
allow it to go _faster_.
In strategic affairs, the Gulf War has shown us clearly the profound
duality of modern warfare. On the one hand there is a multiplication of
local conflicts and terrorist actions, which frustrates the policing power
of conventional armaments: the massacres in Rwanda were done with knives.
But, on the other hand, priority has returned to strategic information,
and to the capacity for massive and very rapid intervention, using ultra -
sophisticated techniques which are more and more difficult to implement
and more and more costly.
At the heart of all of these questions is found technological innovation,
that is to say science, research and development.
Among the actors which are most involved are institutions of higher
learning. They have the responsibility of training the leaders of the
future, and they provide a special place for reflection, and for the
production of new knowledge and understanding. But financial constraints,
which become heavier every day, now involve them as well in this dialectic
of cooperation - competition.
In the arena of actions for international cooperation, the Confe'rence des
Grandes Ecoles decided, with its partners, notably the Americans, that the
organization of an assembly on this subject would be productive: one at
which academics would participate, but also industrialists, politicians,
philosophers and, of course, students.
The Confe'rence therefore organized a Symposium dedicated to these issues,
at Sophia Antipolis, at the Agora France Te'le'com, with the assistance of
the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and the Conference of European Schools
for Advanced Engineering Education and Research (CESAER). The Confe'rence
received, for this work, the support of the European Commission (DG XII),
of industrialists, and of the French government. 155 participants attended
the meetings, including 76 from France, 28 Americans, 47 Europeans (non -
French, and including Central Europeans), and 4 Canadians.
Among those who attended were eminent personalities such as the Chancellor
and the Vice - Chancellor of UCB, the Vice - President of MIT, and the
President of CESAER, as well as a Counselor of the President of the
European Commission, a Nobel Prize - winner in Physics, a former Ministre
de la Recherche of France, the Secretary - General of the Club of Rome,
and others.
** The Principal Themes
The organizers launched workshops bearing upon four precise subjects which
have global implications:
1) Business in the Context of the Globalization of Markets,
2) "Megascience", or Fundamental Research,
3) The "Autoroutes de l'Information" / the Information Superhighways,
4) Biotechnology and the Environment.
1) Business in the Context of the Globalization of Markets
Business strategy consists of searching for alliances which will be
beneficial in the competitive arenas in which businesses are involved. But
the basic endeavor remains competition, in a general context in which
barriers in the market economy are becoming more and more transparent. The
expression "competitive partnership" has been used: its ambiguity
demonstrates the complexity of the situation well.
The determining role increasingly played by government regulations was
emphasized. In this regard, local regulations concerning investments,
notably, can perceptibly and permanently influence business decisions, and
affect the operation of competition.
2) "Megascience", or Fundamental Research
If there is one area in which one might expect to find productive
cooperation under way, it would be in Fundamental Research involving large
instruments, or "Megascience". The construction of large telescopes and of
more and more powerful particle accelerators necessarily must be occasions
for collective work, giving rise to publications in common which are
accessible to all. This in fact is what has happened in a certain number
of cases.
But the situation is not so simple, and the contributor is becoming more
and more interested in the return on his investments, not only because he
is human but also in his capacity as a citizen: the competition among
nations is perhaps more discreet than it has been in the past, but it
still is present.
3) The "Autoroutes de l'Information" / the Information Superhighways
The development of "Information Superhighways" supposes, apparently, that
they will be made available to an increasing number of people, and will
contain more and more information: they will be a tool of collaboration
insofar as they permit easier communication, thanks to electronic mail --
and they also are, perhaps most importantly, accelerators of competition.
"We have to bring our trademark into your bookmark".
As part of this development, the press, whose very purpose is the
furnishing of information, has been shaken to its foundations. But it is
not alone! What is becoming of copyright, of the rights of authors, of the
notion itself of authorship?
4) Biotechnology and the Environment
Finally, the environment also is an area which benefits from a global
approach. The particular case of biotechnology is interesting, for a
living thing is capable of spreading out of control. Cooperation is
necessary, but must be undertaken in advance, and in any case well before
a crisis develops: the example of the "mad cow disease" is, in this
regard, very illuminating.
** Conclusions
Several conclusions are suggested.
First, and even in an arena which was composed primarily of academics,
everyone became aware of the depth of the ideological split which exists
between the Americans and the Europeans (even if in practice things are
more complex).
For the Americans, competition is the engine of progress: it is
competition which must have the advantage -- and, therefore, the free play
of the laws of the market must be favored as much as possible. It is felt
that the other problems, although serious, will find their solutions at
some other time.
This is not the approach of the Europeans, who wish to be able to control
-- in a more precise manner, and through actions which are collective --
the changes, which are so ominous and so often shocking from a moral point
of view, which derive from an unrestrained liberalism.
Without forgetting the serious and notorious setbacks of American society,
one cannot help but be impressed by its dynamism and its rebound capacity,
both of which enable it to surmount great obstacles. As one example, the
restructuring of the military establishment after the end of the Cold War
-- which so troubles France still, in 1996 -- is nearly completed in the
US, and the US armaments industry, after a short difficult period, now is
more competitive than ever.
Then too, it was observed that all of this relies on the development of
science and technological innovation. Now there are movements under way in
many countries -- including the U.S.A -- which are hostile toward science
and technology, considering them to be agents of the destruction of
nature. Will these movements become significant enough to restrain the
development? This is unlikely, but it is an hypothesis which should not be
ignored.
Otherwise, two absences were noted. The first, that of Asia and in
particular Japan, concerned that of one of the grand actors of the global
economy. Its views, however, doubtless would be very close to those of
the Americans, whose model exerts a very real fascination in this region.
On the other hand it was noted that all of our discussions concerned only
the actors in the global economy, an economy controlled 90% by the members
of the G7. This excludes about 3/4 of the planet, and this gulf is
widening. This is morally unacceptable, so can this situation continue?
It is a question for which a response must be found soon: history shows no
reason for us to be very optimistic here.
And regarding education, on what path do we set our students? One of the
speakers remarked that the question of direction, a primordial one, now is
posed in a manner which is more and more complex: we are like navigators
who have only outdated maps.
Polyvalence -- that is to say an openness to multiple technologies, and to
cultural variety -- can help us to progress: it is in this spirit that
teaching ought to be organized and, in this regard, Europe possesses a
certain advantage. In the final analysis the cooperation - competition
dialectic may only be managed by a humanistic approach, a middle path
between the exaltation of the individual, which can lead to cynicism, and
that of the collectivity, which can lead to totalitarianism.
XXX
More information about the Confe'rence des Grandes Ecoles Symposium, which
was held in May of 1996 in Sophia Antipolis, France, may be found online
at the address,
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/IS3/
XXX
FYI France (sm)(tm) e - newsletter ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
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