THE START : Following Lone Bear, the Kiowa Chief
Opening Speech, August 1995
Kalle Levon
Department Chairman
Opening Speech, August 1995
Kalle Levon
Department Chairman
"The number of successful events is directly proportional to the number of initial tries, if the probability of the events is assumed to be constant."
Only 30 years ago, in the sixties, society did not have much for respect people in entertainment and sports. While scientists and engineers still had to “work hard” and to concentrate on building the society in order to improve the quality of life, the entertainers and athletes were "just playing." This was during the time when educators were still highly respected in the society.
Today society respects athletes, singers, artists, but, unfortunately the respect towards scientists have decreased. But who is to blame? Science and chemistry has created a negative image with environmental accidents, chemical warfare, and pollution. It was also easy to respect a scientist who invented the steam engine, because it was easy to understand how it works. It is difficult to respect something one does not understand, especially if someone is afraid of it. The society is and will be more and more dependent on scientists and engineers. We have to bring science to people, teach them understanding in their language, and make them comfortable with science. Berstein did it to classical music, why can't we do it with science? We have to broaden the educational concepts. As scientists and engineers will have more responsibilities in the society, we have to provide engineers a broader education, including an emphasis on social sciences.
And the society keeps changing at a fast pace. The children will be using their computers without keyboards, the speech will be influenced by voice-activated computers, they will talk without articles, without the letter h, without emotions, they learn science much earlier through all the multi-media, they will behave differently, but they will concentrate effectively by bio-feed back instruments, actively already used with pilots and athletes. They are now 12-13 year olds, are we ready for them in five years?
Only 30 years ago, in the sixties, society did not have much for respect people in entertainment and sports. While scientists and engineers still had to “work hard” and to concentrate on building the society in order to improve the quality of life, the entertainers and athletes were "just playing." This was during the time when educators were still highly respected in the society.
Today society respects athletes, singers, artists, but, unfortunately the respect towards scientists have decreased. But who is to blame? Science and chemistry has created a negative image with environmental accidents, chemical warfare, and pollution. It was also easy to respect a scientist who invented the steam engine, because it was easy to understand how it works. It is difficult to respect something one does not understand, especially if someone is afraid of it. The society is and will be more and more dependent on scientists and engineers. We have to bring science to people, teach them understanding in their language, and make them comfortable with science. Berstein did it to classical music, why can't we do it with science? We have to broaden the educational concepts. As scientists and engineers will have more responsibilities in the society, we have to provide engineers a broader education, including an emphasis on social sciences.
And the society keeps changing at a fast pace. The children will be using their computers without keyboards, the speech will be influenced by voice-activated computers, they will talk without articles, without the letter h, without emotions, they learn science much earlier through all the multi-media, they will behave differently, but they will concentrate effectively by bio-feed back instruments, actively already used with pilots and athletes. They are now 12-13 year olds, are we ready for them in five years?
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