I did a lot of dance, for example, and that would give me energy and enthusiasm that I would have to bring to some of my classes where my professors weren't as thrilled to see me. You may have an understanding of nuclear physics, for example, but it's our choice as a society whether we decide to use that understanding for nuclear bombs, nuclear power plants or nuclear medicine. I left NASA because I'm very interested in how social sciences interact with technologies. People always think of technology as something having silicon in it. But a pencil is technology.
Any language is technology.
Technology is a tool we use to accomplish a particular task and when one talks about appropriate technology in developing countries, appropriate may mean anything from fire to solar electricity. Much of today's technological research is being done in the aerospace field. You've said previously that the Third World stands to benefit the most from that research. I think a lot of it has to do with perception. People see space technologies and the space shuttle, maybe the Mars Rover, and there's very little correlation to what that means for us here on Earth.