Science and Technology as Formative Factors of Contemporary Civilisation: From Domination to Liberation

Abstract

“Consider a typical country said to need ‘to be developed’. It’s probably of medium size, with a relatively large population; it has several natural resources that permit it a relative fmancial affluence and a genuine will to consolidate its political independence and to supply its economy with the means for autonomous growth. To these ends it is ready to set aside a not-inconsiderable portion of its foreign-exchange earnings in order to finance the importation of modern science and technology. And after a while this country realises that the conditions of a new dependence are being forged by means of technology transfer, the acquisition of prefabricated factories, even by means of technical assistance aimed at training the country’s own experts. From the difficulties involved in setting up a nation-wide engineering establishment capable both of mastering scientific and technical imports and of preserving one’s freedom of choice on the world market, the country realises that in order really to make use of the imported types of knowledge it would almost have been necessary to be able to produce them oneself. To use a comparison, the importation of science and technology acts rather as a drug upon which the country becomes dependent, and not as a form of nourishment for autonomous development.