Engineer and Irvine resident Roland Schinzinger spoke from his scientific and Quaker point of view about communications, technology and values. Rabbi Allen Krause, founder of the Diversity Faire, the Rev. Mark Whitlock of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Paul Silverman, former associate chancellor of UCI who worked at the first national Human Genome Center, also participated on various panels. Kay Lindahl, this year's coordinator of the Faire, was pleased at the turnout and credited the prestigious list of panelists as well as the topics that were discussed. I think most people would say that these open forums and the meaningful inquiries are critical as we learn to respect our differences and understand our limitations. Henry Samueli seemed to echo the overall sentiment when he noted that due to the inherent curiosity in human nature, technology cannot be stopped.
Technology is like air.
He told the audience that his parents were Holocaust survivors and he believes that technology advances and the rapid transmission of information could deter such horrific events from taking place in the future. He and others also acknowledged the dilemma that technology can be and is at times misused. Rabbi Krause, in one of the sessions, said that the great dilemma is the question of who will decide what is ethical and what is not ethical, since opinions on the issue vary so much. Alexopoulos emphasized that ethics must not be taught only to doctors and scientists but to children starting at a very young age so that we will have an ethical society. Lindahl commented that gatherings such as the Diversity Faire are just the beginning of what should be an ongoing exploration of the important issues of technology and ethics.