Philosophers to ponder
high-tech consequences

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

What impact will high technology have, not on science or the stock market, but on human beings? What's the worst that could happen? And how can high technology be used intelligently to prevent the bad stuff?

That's the thrust of the eighth-annual East-West Philosophers' Conference titled, "Technology and Human Values on the Edge of the Third Millennium." The Jan. 9-21 conference, co-sponsored by the University of Hawaii and the East-West Center, is drawing 180 scholars from 30 countries.

"The really important thing is people," said Roger Ames, a philosophy professor at UH-Manoa and conference co-director. "(Technology) affects every dimension of the human experience: how long we live, our religion, our ways of expressing ourselves. How to use it intelligently is what the conference is all about."

The conference will have speakers on a broad range of topics such as education, communication, medicine, culture and science.

"Technology brings a lot of good things, but philosophers are always skeptical," said Marietta Stepaniants, also a UH-Manoa philosophy professor and co-director. "We want to bring awareness not only to the positive but negative aspects of technology, how different cultures cope."

While the West, for the most part, welcomes high tech, Stepaniants said other cultures may see it differently. For example, the technology-rich Japanese still have problems with organ transplants, and some traditional farmers in Hawaii and India see too much technological intervention as a bad thing. And how will computers affect brain development?

Some featured speakers at Keoni Auditorium, UH-Manoa:

Monday, 2 p.m.: Kristin Shrader-Frechette, University of Notre Dame, speaks about the Chernobyl accident and its environmental impacts.

Tuesday, 7 p.m.: Dr. Earl Bakken, developer of the pacemaker, discusses "Combining Hi Technology and Hi Touch: Caring for Body, Mind and Spirit."

Wednesday, 7 p.m.: William LaFleur, University of Pennsylvania, speaks on cultural influences on organ transplants in Japan.

Next Thursday, 7 p.m.: Japanese composer Somei Satoh, "Contemporary Music with Buddhist Sensibilities" (Orvis Auditorium).

For information, call 956-6685 or check http://www.hawaii.edu/phil/conf/