To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Join former SEAS Dean Venky Narayanamurti and co-author Toluwalogo Odumosu for a discussion of their book, Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier.
Tracing the history of the problematic "basic" and "applied" categories, the book documents how historical views of policymakers and scientists have led to the construction of science as a pure ideal on the one hand and of engineering as a practical (and inherently less prestigious) activity on the other.
Sponsored by the Program on Science, Technology & Society