Social Control of Innovation

By denying any group of experts the status of an established religion, we may divest the advocates of the technological fix of the overrated authority which the demands of war and diplomacy and a powerful coalition of supporting interest groups have foisted on the faithful. R and D budget proposals are no longer treated as sacred texts, partly because policy-makers are more capable of informed skepticism and partly because (after twenty years of exploding science) an automatic control has begun to operate. Science has grown too big too quickly, and too many people are now involved. That means more politics, troublesome, unavoidable, and good for the nation.