Vivo Para Vivir Public Lecture by Sir Michael Atiyah

For the lover of Mathematics there could not have been a better opportunity to personally witness the working of the mind of a living legend, than when Sir Michael Atiyah held a series of lectures on the geometry of n points in three dimensional space in college. However, the wise wizard had something in store even for the less mathematically-motivated. In his public lecture held in the College auditorium on the 12th of November he addressed many issues which concern all of us, technical knowledge not withstanding. Small by appearance, his unassuming stance and mild manner didn’t instantly give away the depths of his creative thinking and the many facets to his personality. His focus, too, was not on talking about things that demonstrated his genius. Rather, he spoke of issues facing the scientific community and the world in general. Starting with his perception of what science is, he went on to talk about science and religion as the major driving forces behind humanity - the clashes that have occurred between the two since the time of Socrates, the intermittent shaking of the very foundations of the supremacy of the church, Darwin’s struggle to convince people that evolution has had a hand in making the world as it is today and not just Providence - and many more. He went on to tell us that science has many positive contributions to make to human existence, from providing us with food, to taking care of our health, to giving rise to an increasing level of prosperity. It’s not all good though, and the negative aspects of scientific growth need to be looked out for even more. The weaponry that threatens to bring us to the brink of annihilation spanning biological, chemical and even nuclear dimensions, speaks of the absolute disdain that man shows to life as he blunders on with his own innovations. The hostilities which crop up on the question of everchanging lines drawn variably around pieces of land and the ensuing mindless bloodbaths just egg us on to become more and more of a danger to our own existence. Indirectly too, explosive population growth caused by uneven strides in various walks of life have an immeasurable impact on how we live. Environmental degradation- deforestation and pollution-were viewed by him as the gradual poisoning of all that we require in order to survive. He spoke of the last 30 to 40 years as an indicator of what’s coming, and predicted that it will become progressively worse unless things change fast. He believes that scientists have an important role in society today. They cannot remain living in their own ivory towers. They need to take part in the decision-making taking place in society. He emphasized that they should support industrial research but spoke of markets as a definite stumbling block in the free spread of knowledge. He similarly advised that they should play a role in finance and policy, but said that science should not become a football in the hands of governments, with the advantage passing from one side to the other in an endless game. They should interact freely with the media themselves and influence public perception so that no distortions take place. The trend that journalists are usually from non-scientific backgrounds needs to be broken. He pointed out several ethical problems which the development of science has led to, be it genetically modified crops, or the use of embryonic material for the advancement of research, cloning and so on, which has led us to question this path we have taken, leaving behind the natural order of things. He said it is the scientist’s duty to clear the misgivings that the public might feel with regard to new discoveries. As for the future of science, he acknowledged that though one can hardly stop the advancement of ideas, their speed and direction can and should be consciously modified and regulated. The dangers in blind growth are increasing and bounds should be placed on how far we will go. The future of humanity, he said, will see the very biggest of biological advances. In the next 50 years or so the mystery of the brain will be increasingly solved, and enormous new issues are bound to crop up. Humanity which stands on the verge of this sea-change must control their own fate; otherwise the consequences might be disastrous. As he finished, he left a feeling in the audience- a realization that they too were there at important crossroads - that thought needs to be given to what the future holds- to what it should hold.

Megha Prakash
I Economics