Businessmen are used to making decisions. That's not a problem, that's a condition. Politics exist precisely because the world is full of other people. All you can do is figure out a civilized accommodation with them. So I am not all that eager to see scientists become active in political affairs.
Scientists always love planning.
The assumption underlying long-range planning is that people will do what you tell them to do. So what I think the scientific and engineering community has to face up to is its own self-education, its own social education. I happen to think there is no other kind. I think that this kind of educational inquiry tends to be neglected in modern scientific education, as the fields proliferate and there is more and more to know. I have no reason to doubt that the Polytechnic Institute will incorporate in its curriculum, and in its intentions, this humanistic intent.