Notice the Unnoticed: The Significance of Humanistic Perspectives in Science and Technology
By : Michael Gibb
Groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence, digital communication and biotechnology significantly impact how we address pressing societal challenges and benefit human prosperity. But while science and technology transform all sectors of society, humanistic perspectives often go unnoticed.
This viewpoint played a leading role in shaping a roundtable discussion chaired by faculty from CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at De La Salle University in Manila. The event formed part of a conference themed “Higher education as a tool for economic and social transformation” organised by Times Higher Education.
“Today, we have increasing choices and directions generated by our ever-evolving science and technologies. However, additional choices and possibilities bring further complexity and uncertainty,” said the Dean of CLASS, Professor Richard Walker, when introducing the debate to education leaders from Southeast Asia who joined the lively discussion.
Transformations today raise debates on serious ethical, legal and governance concerns, including privacy, human rights, and potential risks, he explained.
To re-examine and reimagine how the power of these advancements can best contribute to the global common good, we need the insight and wisdom of humanists and social scientists to help guide those choices, he added.
Three heads of CLASS departments were on hand at De La Salle University to share their thoughts on the topic.
In his segment titled “Angels and Devils in the Brain”, Professor Matthew Manning, Head of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences and a criminological economist and future crime scholar, outlined how social scientists and psychologists study human behaviour using new technologies and cognitive science; how criminals exploit new technologies to undertake money laundering and fraud, and other illicit activities; and how criminologists tackle such issues.
(From left) Professor Manning, Professor Huang, Professor Walker and Professor Harding In fact, to cope with the new forms of crime, Professor Manning argued, criminology these days has evolved to accommodate expertise in psychology, maths, computer science and even neuroscience as researchers try to unpack how opportunistic criminals are increasingly using behavioural cues to deceive us.
“At CityU, we are building capacity to keep our students safe by giving them the digital skills needed to confront the challenges posed by opportunistic criminals,” he said, noting specifically that criminals can too easily access our hand-held phones for nefarious purposes. “We want our students to be ‘intelligent consumers’ in the new digital world by the time they graduate,” he said.
Professor Christine Huang Yi-hui, Head of the Department of Media and Communication, began the next section of the discussion by elaborating on “Strategic Communication in the Age of Science and Technology,” emphasising the extent to which we are exposed to inaccurate information, disinformation, fake news, and rumour. Participants universally agreed that trust in sources of information took a battering during the COVID-19 pandemic, with comments circling around questions related to who we ought to trust for health information.
Consequently, she said, we are seeing an evolution in communications, an inevitable paradigm shift towards what she refers to as the co-creation of knowledge, tricky terrain that our students need guidance to negotiate through safely. The ensuing discussions among the participants explored issues of truth and trust in our various forms of communication.
“In the era of fake news and misinformation, what strategies can strategic communicators employ to build trust, credibility, and combat misinformation in online spaces and facilitate science communication?” Professor Huang asked at the end of her segment.
A central theme in the next segment delivered by Professor Jason Harding, Head of the Department of English, titled “Science and the Creation of Human Values” was bound inextricably with a quote by the philosopher Bertrand Russell: “Science is no substitute for virtue.”
Sharing his research on the writings of US physicist Robert Oppenheimer, Professor Harding raised questions related to ethics and truth in science, human values, and humanistic understanding, prompting the audience to reflect on how science and technology frame the arts and humanities that we consume as students and members of society and how the boundaries between scientific truth and human values may seem to lack distinction.
References to nuclear weapons prompted further discussion on the need to give students historical context and encourage them to consider the impact of science and technology on human life.
Professor Harding left participants to ponder these words, again from Russell, at the end of the session: “Whether science will prove to have been a blessing or a curse to mankind, is to my mind, still a doubtful question.”
