Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

2 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | 21 st O ctober 1989 Knowledge and techniques can’t just be forgotten. Nor can one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off, the force of competition between companies, would still bring about advances in technology. And one cannot stop enquiring minds thinking about basic sciences, even if they are not paid for it. The only way to prevent further developments, would be a global totalitarian state, that suppressed anything new. But human initiative and ingenuity is such, that it wouldn’t succeed. All that it would do, is slow down the rate of change. If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology, from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions, and not be left in the hands of experts. At the moment, the public has a rather ambivalent attitude to science. It has come to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought. But it also distrusts science, because it doesn’t understand it. This distrust is shown in the cartoon character of the mad scientist, working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. It is also an important element behind support for Green parties. But the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as is shown by the large audiences for television series such as Cosmos , and for science fiction. What can be done to harness his interest, and give the public the scientific background it needs to make informed decisions on subjects like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear weapons or genetic engineering? Clearly, the basis must be what is taught in schools. But science in schools is often presented in a dry and uninteresting manner. Children learn it by rote to pass examinations. But they don’t see its relevance to the world around them. And science is often taught in term of equations. Although equations are a concise and accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people. When I wrote a popular book recently, I was advised that each equation I included would half the sales. I include one equation, Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2. Maybe, I would have sold twice as many copies without it. Stephen Hawking — Prince of Asturias Award for Concord 1989 Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord on 21/10/1989.