Technology Processes of Assessment and Choice (1969) / Chapter Skim
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Chapter V
Chapter V
Pages 72-118
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From page 72... ...
We have urged th.at such decisions ought to reflect a wider circle of concerns than they have in the past ; that they should attribute greater importance to the preservation of future options ; that they should be pre ceded and accompanied by more comprehensive efforts to reduce uncertainties through basic understanding ; that they should build on a broader base of public par ticipation ; that they should be brought into greater harmony with one another through more sophisticated efforts to achieve consistency of criteria . And we have attempted to trace the myriad constraints, both concep tual and institutional, upon society's capacity to achieve these objectives.
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From page 73... ...
At several points in this report we have noted the growing significance of federal programs and policies in the evolution of technology. We have observed that technological development in the private as well as the public sector has become increasingly dependent upon actions taken by Congress and the President, upon federal appropriations and legislation, upon the missions and practices of a wide variety of executive agencies and ad ministrative bodies.
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From page 74... ...
If a pilot program initiated within the federal government and limited to technological developments and applications signifi cantly molded by federal policies could be carried out imaginatively and energetically, it could eventually serve both as a stimulus and as a demonstration, leading · to comparable activities in state a,nd local governments and in the private sector, or perhaps to gradual exten sions of the federal program itself. If the federal govern ment can point the way to more responsible manage ment of technological change, it will have accomplished no mean task ; if it cannot, little more can be expected of other institutions in our society.
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From page 75... ...
The members of the panel are persuaded, for the reasons developed in this report, that the creation of such additional mechanisms in the federal government is a matter of urgency. Before attempting to describe how the mechanisms we envision might function and how they might be organized, we think it useful to articulate here the broad principles that our analysis suggests should guide the design of any improved assess ment system within the federal government, however narrow or expansive the range of its substantive tech nological concerns might be .
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From page 76... ...
But even apart from this value judgment, grave deficiencies would inhere in any self contained and centralized assessment operation, how ever well-intentioned and dedicated . First, it i s clear that no assessment mechanism broad enough to achieve the objectives this report envisions even if limited to the sphere of federally supported or controlled technology-could possibly command the range of expertise needed to make competent assessments of all the problems with which it might be confronted .
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From page 77... ...
The ob jective of an proposal we make-whether or not limited to y federally in fluenced technology-should not be to transfer these assessment responsibilities to a new organization or to duplicate existing assessment activities in a new setting, but to subject such responsibilities and activities to critical review and constructive guidance in the hope of developing consistent principles and higher standards within a pluralistic frame. Any new assessment structure in the government should there fore supplement and coordinate existing mechanisms rather than supersede them.
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From page 78... ...
Unless the broadened criteria and perspectives de veloped by a new assessment entity find a place not only in the thinking of scientists and engineers but also in the planning of entrepreneurs and executives, the i mpact of any such entity will be superficial. For even if the entity is confined to areas of technology strongly in fluenced by federal action, it will need to draw on the resources of the corporate community if it is to perform capably� and it will ultimately have to influence the decision-making processes of that community if i t is to prove truly effective.
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From page 79... ...
It seems clear, for example, that government sponsorship and leadership could induce the private development of far "cleaner" means of automotive propulsion-despite the fact that each individual company, without such leadership, might feel unjustified in undertaking the costs involved in the necessary changes. To that end, the government might well establish standards calculated to achieve specific environmental obj ectives.
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From page 80... ...
NEUTRALITY Any new technology-assessment mechanism must maintain as detached and neutral a stance as possible toward each issue that comes before it. We have already seen that a central defici ency of existing mechanisms for assessment is that they fail to separate promotion or pro teCtion from evaluation, and thereby compromise both their in tegrity and their credibility.
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From page 81... ...
The panel strongly doubts that such vast authority could be lodged in any agency without subjecting it to external political pressures that it could not resist and thence leading it to prompt cor ruption and ultimate collapse. At a minimum, the panel is certain that entrusting such sweeping powers to a new assessment entity would rob it of any special claim to objectivity and would render its judgments at least as suspect as those of any other regulatory body.
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From page 82... ...
Any such congressional component-whether an instrument of Congress as a whole or of one or more committees or both-must be empowered at the very least to review the work of the executive componen.t and also to undertake studies on its own initiative . Without connections of this kind, any new mechanism would invariably lack force vis-a-vis the executive bureaucracy and the government-industrial establish ments, both within the executive branch and in congres 82 Digitized by Goog Ie
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From page 83... ...
The most we can hope for in creating a new mechanism for technology assessment is to introduce a greater degree of ob jectivity into the process and to in ject a body of criteria and assumptions that reflect a wider set of interests and values than do the specialized organizations currently engaged in fragmented assessment activities. We can hope to raise the level of political discourse; we must not seek to eliminate it.
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From page 84... ...
Opportunities to intervene should come early in the decision-making process so that needless controversy is avoided later and so that participants can effectively influence the outcome. To increase the likelihood that the views expressed will receive adequate weight in the final assessments and decisions, care must be taken to secure a wide diversity of lay and professional per sonnel in the assessment entity itself and to guarantee thorough public review, though measures must also be devised to assure that at least the early stages of the assessment process, when experts should be encouraged to speculate candidly, will not later be exposed to em harassing public scrutiny.
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From page 85... ...
The entirely natural opposition of such groups to the technological development in question, already a barrier to many forms of innovation, might 85 Digitized by Goog Ie
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From page 86... ...
In discussions of the future of audio-visual education, for example, the contrasting implications of two different technological choices have been noted : first, instructional TV programs broadcast from a central source to all schools in a given city ; second, film or videotape car tridges located in school libraries for use at the teacher's initiative. Choosing the first alternative would obviously diminish the flexibility of teaching schedules and re strict the play of individual teacher preferences and styles, though it might prove more efficient in an eco nomic and organizational sense and might permit wider dissemination of the "best" materials ; choosing the second alternative would permit teachers to adapt television materials to their own educational approaches and tastes-in timing and in content.
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From page 87... ...
A final hazard is that the superposition of new review and assessment mechanisms upon those already exist ing in the federal government and elsewhere may exert 87 Digitized b y Goog Ie
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From page 88... ...
Their very existence could create large new worries for the innovator ; how a proposed technological change would be viewed in the eyes of the new assessors could pose a perplexing question for business. The force of this consideration is obviously weakened to the extent that new assessment mechanisms are re stricted to areas where federal decisions already play a crucial role, but even mechanisms thus confined will undoubtedly impose some higher costs.
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From page 89... ...
3. Should serve not to supersede existing mechanisms for technology assessment but rather to enhance the consistency, breadth, and objectivity of their criteria for decision, the comprehensiveness and accuracy of their analyses, and the openness of their processes to wide participation by all potentially affected interests.
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From page 90... ...
SPECIFIC FuNcTioN s Keeping in mind the broad guidelines set forth above, guidelines that should be considered in the design of any new technology-assessment mechanism or set of mechanisms in the government, we tum now to an enumeration of the kinds of functions that we would expect a new mechanism to perform : I . Examine particular areas of technology by con tracting with outside organizations to undertake studies of specific problems defined and selected by it.
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From page 91... ...
3. Review specific assessments performed by other government agencies or departments, either on its own initiative or by request from other agencies, from select
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From page 92... ...
summarizing its own activities, (b) reviewing the work of technology-assessment mechanisms throughout the gov ernment, and (c)
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From page 93... ...
Both the grant program and the information center will obviously prove critical to the development of the tools and the data necessary to the effective setting of priorities in terms of future need rather than past habit and present power.
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From page 94... ...
We have noted, for example, that new assessment mechanisms must be close to the center of political power so that they may be influential in major decisions bearing on technological change ; yet such mechanisms must maintain the image and substance of political neutrality so that the integrity and credibility of their evaluations will not be impaired . We have ob94 Digitized by Goog Ie
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From page 95... ...
served, too, that new mechanisms for technology assess ment must be concerned with matters of current ur gency ; yet, unless such mechanisms maintain a longer time horizon than do most government organizations, their preoccupation with problems that are momentarily highly visible may lead them from crisis to crisis without the continuity of attention and action necessary for sustained progress. Thus the whole technology-assessment process could become little more than an exercise in futility.
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From page 96... ...
More promising for technology-assessment purposes, both in terms of detachment and in terms of continuity, might be a high-level staff operating on the model of the Council of Economic Advisers, serving the President and answerable directly to him. But the inherent difficulty of separating the kinds of issues that such a council would have to consider from those for which the President's Office of Science and Technology bears responsibility argues strongly for merging the executive component of the new system with an appropriately expanded version of that Office.
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From page 97... ...
However the effort might be organized, the intemal operating responsibilities of the broadened Office of Science and Technology would include the last four of the eight functions enumerated earlier : direction of an information-management system for technology assess ment, preparation of an annual report, initiation of conferences and symposia, and preparation of in-house policy papers. The Office, or its Technology Assessment Department if one were established, would also operate in close cooperation with a new Technology Assessment Division within the National Science Foundation, appropriately expanded to accommodate the new re sponsibilities that such a division would undertake.
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From page 98... ...
The selection of proposals for grant support would be based on the relevance of a proposed study to issues high in the priorities of the Office of Science and Technology or its Technology Assessment Department ; the possible significance of the study for future policy or for the de velopment of assessment doctrine ; the scientific original ity of the proposal ; its general intellectual merit ; its technical feasibility ; the record of previous performance of the potential grantee ; the expertise of the grantee's 98 Digitized by Goog Ie
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From page 99... ...
Even proposals too poorly framed or ill-conceived to be worth supporting might serve to alert assessment institutions to new kinds of dangers or to opportunities not previously considered, or might high light the importance of questions formerly too low on the agenda of such institutions to receive sufficient attention. The panel believes that a grant program of this sort is indispensable if new assessment entities are to serve an "early warning" function that transcends habitual assumptions and momentary priorities.
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From page 100... ...
This would be particularly valuable for studies on issues of considerable significance for national policy, in which the present supporting agency has an interest in a particular out come-such as a Federal Aviation Agency-supported study of the sonic boom, a Department of Defense supported study of the ecological effects of the military use of defoliants, or a Department of Agriculture supported study of the role of fertilizers in contributing to lake pollution and eutrophication. Existing agencies would not, of course, be precluded from supporting similar studies.
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From page 101... ...
At least with respect to technologies sponsored by executive departments and agencies, which comprise the bulk of our present concern, it can hardly be assumed that adequate pressure for alteration of perspectives will come from the Executive itself (51) , although the Presi dency, as opposed to the executive bureaucracy, can obviously serve as a crucial source of altered criteria and priorities.
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From page 102... ...
Allow the Congress effectively to utilize the input of data, complaints, and suggestions pertinent to technological development or its consequences that may be expected to flow from the general public, in part spontaneously and in part under stimulus. Enable the Congress to make constructive and systematic use of existing assessment systems in the government, with special emphasis on the identi fication of gaps in information and analysis with respect to ongoing or proposed federal programs directly influencing major technological applica tions.
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From page 103... ...
In order to accomplish, or even approximate, these objectives, new technology-assessment institutions linked to Congress will have to be furnished with mechanisms enabling them : To enlist the aid of outside organizations, either directly or through the expanded National Science Foundation, in obtaining specific assessments and developing new assessment tools and criteria. To utilize the information-management system developed under the aegis of the proposed tech nology-assessment operation in the Office of Science and Technology, or, conceivably, to establish a second such system.
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From page 104... ...
The committee's relation ship to the proposed technology-assessment entity in the executive branch might be analogous to the relationship of the Joint Economic Committee to the Council of Economic Advisers, or analogous to the relationship of the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation to the Department of the Treasury. Like the Joint Economic Committee, the new Joint Committee on Technology Assessment would review the work of a most influential component of the executive advisory apparatus ; like that committee, it could elevate the exploration of issues within its jurisdiction to a high standard of professional competence throughout the Congress ; and, like the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, the new joint committee would be charged with oversight re sponsibilities with respect to operations and legislation and would be entrusted with important powers and duties of investigation and systematic review.
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From page 105... ...
Provision could perhaps be made for the committee to administer d irectly an information center and pro grams of contracts and grants like those already proposed for the Executive Office operation. But if it were thought that information-management systems and programs of extramural studies on the scale here contemplated would be too large for direct administration by a con gressional committee, reliance might be placed instead upon the proposed technology-assessment information system in the Office of Science and Technology and the suggested Technology Assessment Division of the ex panded National Science Foundation, which would then administer programs of contracts and grants both for the Office of Science and Technology and for the Joint Committee on Technology Assessment.
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From page 106... ...
Both the director and his staff should be compensated at sufficiently high rates to make it possible to attract first-rate men . The staff should include representation from a variety of scientific and non-scientific disciplines ; its size might be similar to that of the staff of the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation-approxi mately fifteen professionals, some senior, some junior.
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From page 107... ...
And such an organization might develop an excessive tendency to accept the broad political assumptions under which technological decisions are made-precisely the assumptions that a joint committee would be prone to question in depth. On the other hand, the very political associations from which a joint committee would draw its strength and its capacity to focus attention on key issues could danger ously subvert its integrity.
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From page 108... ...
Moreover, many technology assessments may result in new or amended legislation or in the restruc turing of government organization or of congressional committees in response to technological change. Much can therefore be said for having Congress intimately involved throughout, since it is the views of congressmen and of their affected constituents that will ultimately determine the fate of many important policy recommen dations emerging from assessment activities.
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From page 109... ...
Finally, an executive agency may be less inclined than its congressional counterpart to listen sympa thetically to all the many affected constituencies. To some extent these competing considerations can be accommodated by an imaginative sharing of respon sibilities between the executive and cong1 essional com ponents of the assessment activity.
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From page 110... ...
The chairman of such an entity would presumably be appointed for a fixed term by the President but could be removed neither by him nor by Congress except for cause and after a full hearing. Such an institution might be contemplated as an addition to the Executive Office structure proposed above, in which case it could serve simply as a sub stitute for a Congress-wide mechanism, or it might contain internal divisions for information management and the administration of contract and grant programs, in which case it might approximate a self-contained Technology Assessment Board, supplanting the unit in the executive branch as well as the unit in the Congress.
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From page 111... ...
MILITARY TECHNOLOGY The area of military technology has not received major attention in the panel's deliberations. Yet this area accounts for more than half the resources devoted by the federal government to research and development.
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From page 112... ...
Crucial arguments concerning whether or not to go forward with a new military technological development often involve information that is not available to the public or is subject to controlled release to the public in such a way as to support particular policy viewpoints. Finally, during the period of the cold war, national security has enjoyed such overriding priority that the secondary consequences of military technology have tended to receive even less consideration than have those of other technologies.
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From page 113... ...
We wish simply to point out that the present system for the assessment of military tech nology violates most of the canons suggested by the panel with regard to the representation of affected interests, the consideration of larger social and environ mental contexts, the maintenance of future options, and public visibility and review of the crucial information and arguments. Many of these limitations in the process of technology assessment for the military may be essential to national security, but the panel would be remiss in its responsi bility if it did not point out what appears to be almost the most glaring gap in our present technology-assessment mechanisms.
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From page 114... ...
Unless this is done, there is a real danger either of great social or en vironmental damage, or, conversely, of a broad public reaction against all forms of military technology, which might endanger the security position of the United States .
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From page 115... ...
Although technology assessment activities are already widely dispersed among government instrumentalities and private organizations, it is our conclusion that such activities suffer in their totality from basic inadequacies that will prove increas ingly critical as the scale and intensity of technological development continue to mount. Our study has revealed that existing mechanisms, whether they involve government agencies, private industries, or professional groups, possess intrinsic limi tations, some structural and others psychological, that leave serious gaps in the spectrum of processes that assess and direct the development of technology in our society : In the formulation of issues for assessment and in the attribution of value to alternative outcomes, those processes too often ignore the broader social and en vironmental contexts in which their effects are felt.
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From page 116... ...
These difficulties cannot be overcome at a single stroke ; but they can gradually be reduced by a program of technology assessment that is broader in fundamental conception and scope than any now exist ing, one that takes into account the changing values, sensitivities, and priorities of society. The present organization of private and public assess ment systems is too fragmented and uncoordinated, too lacking in professionalism, continuity, and detachment, to provide a viable institutional basis for the support of the research and education that a sufficiently broad technology-assessment program will demand and for the development of the professional competence and vision that such a program will require.
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From page 117... ...
Thus new institutions are needed not to supersede existing mechanisms but to supplement them. With these principles in mind, the panel urges the creation of a constellation of organizations, with com ponents located strategically within both political branches, that can create a focus and a forum for re sponsible technology-assessment activities throughout government and the private sector.
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From page 118... ...
3. Encouraging activities and programs related to the stimulation of public awareness of, and interest in, assessment issues and the education and development of professional groups with broadened perspectives to staff future technology-assessment activities in industry, in government, and in other institutions.
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