My budget this year is less than it was last year. At the same time, we are making increases in education and environmental programs, a good portion of which is coming about from the savings related to technology. But technology can't solve every problem, especially ones having to do with people's inhumanity to each other, Glendening said. These are the kinds of questions that regularly come across my desk. Glendening cited tough problems in the welfare system, in educating legal immigrants, in criminal justice, and in land use as examples of places where technological solutions play only a limited role.
Technology is great.
It is solving a lot of our problems. But technology has not yet been able to help us with many of the real ethical and policy dilemmas that we face on a daily basis. Gemstone students take special courses in sociology, political science, history and business that emphasize the relationship between technological innovation and societal change. Each student also will be a member of a multidisciplinary team undertaking a long-term research project that addresses a crucial problem with technical, commercial, political, ethical and societal components. Glendening's speech was the final in the fall 1996 Gemstone Distinguished Lecture Series, which introduces Gemstone students to the themes they will be exploring in their studies.