Keith, I want to express appreciation for the many subjects that you bring. Without your searching often operatic mind, we would not consider many things. I also like the way you create scenarios for what is happening on the world stage. It is perceptive, creative and sometimes difficult to accept but always useful.
Thanks REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 5:38 AM Subject: [Futurework] A helping hand to Islam > Among the proposals given to Edge this year (in the form of a letter to > President Bush) is the following from Rodney Brooks, Director of the MIT AI > Lab: > > <<<< > Science and the technology that flows from it have been great strengths of > the United States; without them the US would not be the single superpower > that it is today in the world. > > For the last fifty years that science has been carried out largely in the > open and has been shared with the rest of the world. That sharing has been > a source of great strength. The US graduate education system is the > strongest in the world and many international leaders have had some of > their training in our Universities. The openness and the way in which our > universities have been run as meritocracies, not places where national > origin or religion is considered in evaluating one's work, has attracted > waves of immigration of great scientists and engineers to this country. > > There is a place for classified and restricted research but it is mostly in > areas that are close to application, not in fundamental scientific and > engineering questions. The place for that research is not at our > universities. The great universities of the US should remain as open arenas > for all areas of research where they act as an engine of creativity that > feeds the scientific needs of the US and the world. > > As science advisor I would urge you to continue, and strengthen, this > policy of openness. I would urge you to set aside perhaps a billion dollars > to fund new fellowships for graduate students from predominantly Islamic > countries to come and study science (broadly construed) in the United > States. I would urge you to direct the INS to treat foreign students as > welcome guests rather than suspected criminals who must be monitored > constantly by their host universities, and who are to be arrested, as has > recently happened, when the courses they end up taking at a respected first > rate university do not match some preconceived plan. > > To reach out this generous hand to aspiring young students would be > courageous in the current domestic climate of fear. But the long term > payoff for the United States will be immense. It will create long term > personal links between people in the countries we currently most fear and > our own country. Based on past experience we can predict that many of those > people will rise to positions of leadership and authority within their > countries. In the shorter term it will be an act of generosity rather than > aggression, and one can hope that it will have positive effects in the way > the US is viewed. Besides that we will gain access to a large number of > very smart, very driven, young minds who will help us and the world in > making scientific progress. > > Once I have convinced you to follow this advice I will get to work on some > more radical ideas which involve funding science that is deep and curiosity > driven, rather than dressed up as responding to politically justifiable > immediate needs. Such science has been the well spring of the great > advances throughout history. > >>>> > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > ------------ > > Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com > 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England > Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > ________________________________________________________________________ > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
