Our Right Angle Problem

George Lucus of Star Wars fame has an interesting take on the important question - - "Do you think technology is making the world better or worse?" Lucus addresses the question with the following observation:

If you watch the curve of science and everything we know, it shoots up like a rocket. We're on this rocket and we're going perfectly vertical into the stars. But the emotional intelligence of humankind is equally if not more important than our intellectual intelligence. We're just as emotionally illiterate as we were 5,000 years ago; so emotionally our line is completely horizontal. The problem is the horizontal and vertical are getting farther and farther apart. And as these things grow apart, there's going to be some kind of consequence of that.

As science and engineering attempt to address increasingly more complex and interconnected problems - - many of our solutions are clearly represented by the rocket headed straight up. The area of geo-engineering the planet as an outcome of climate change - - or advanced genetic medical research and treatment - - our vertical line seems to be at a 90-degree angle from our horizontal line and what society seems willing to grasp. Are we advancing at such a technological pace, that the challenges and consequences we face as we stabilize at a right angle with our collective emotions will be overwhelming difficult to address? As the Internet and IT line goes vertical - - where a world of 24/7 access and information frames a permanent right angle with the world of self-awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management - - what is the impact of this apparent conflict in our technological direction versus are humanistic understanding and history?

We as engineers need to be thinking about the consequences that Mr. Lucas is concerned with.