Although the pursuit of science and technology is often at odds with the pursuit of social justice, theoretical physicist Freeman J. Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton believes that scientists can collaborate productively with social justice advocates for the sake of the world's poor.

A native of England who emigrated to the United States in 1951, Professor Dyson delivered the eighth annual Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Lectures on Ethics and Public Policy, sponsored by the Kroc Institute, on April 9-10, 2002. That he stands in a minority regarding the humanitarian potential of science and technology does not concern the 79-year-old Dyson, now Professor Emeritus of the same institute where Albert Einstein worked.

"I hold it to be ethically unacceptable to tolerate the gross inequalities that prevail in the world today between rich and poor countries," Dyson told a crowd in the Hesburgh Center Auditorium. "And I hold it to be intellectually unacceptable to abandon scientific knowledge and the technological power that scientific knowledge brings."

Dyson is the author of many books which have appealed to both scholarly and popular audiences. Disturbing the Universe (1979) is his scientific autobiogra-phy while Weapons and Hope (1984) received the National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction. His global justice orientation earned him the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 2000. At Notre Dame, Professor Dyson gave two lectures: "Eight Tales for Technophiles: Successes and Failures in Using Technology to Help the Poor" and "The World Economic Forum Debates: The Future of Science and Technology."

Dyson said that he preferred to state the case for tech-nology' s humanitarian potential with case histories - not scientific theories. He shared case histories of eight modern technological projects to alleviate poverty. Some were suc-cess stories, but several failed. The benefits of some - like the emerging green revolution - must still be assessed.

SELF, the Solar Electric Light Fund, a private founda-tion in Washington, D.C., supplies solar panels to generate electricity from sunlight. Small, inexpensive solar panel systems generate enough electricity in homes to run fluorescent lights, a radio, phone and a television. Children read and study more. Adults can lengthen their work-day and add to family income by producing marketable products. In rural schools, larger solar collectors brought not only electric light into classrooms, but also computers, satellite links and the internet.

Professor Dyson also described the contribution of the Grameen Bank, the brainchild of economist Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh. Developing a concept of micro-credit banking, Yunus made small loans to village women for income-generating projects such as cellular phones. These women sold phone service by the minute and made profits.

But well-intentioned attempts to raise living standards through technology can fail just as dramatically, Dyson insisted.

He spoke about the massive, tragic failure of Mao Tse Tung's "Great Leap Forward" in China in the late 1950s. Mao attempted to transplant industrial production to China's villages in order to shift wealth from the cities. Agricultural output plunged; millions of peasants starved.

In this third millennium, according to Dyson, the time has come for science and technology to meet the needs of the underdeveloped communities of the world. "Both our ethical and intellectual ideals must be sustained if we are to fulfill our obligations as stewards of a vulnerable planet."

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