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By Root 472 0

the scientific underpinnings of their lives and of public debates. When they type on a computer and transmit an e-mail, they don’t realize that this seemingly straightforward action embodies some of the greatest scientific and technological discoveries of the twentieth century, including quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, optical physics, and computer science. Nor do they realize that the same laws of nature that underpin their e-mails underpin the science of climate change (e.g., the laws of quantum mechanics and optical physics that determine that carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation and thereby warms the planet). Nor do they realize that the basic physics of greenhouse gases, that carbon dioxide absorbs heat energy, predates the beginning of quantum mechanics by three-quarters of a century.7

The fact is that technology is so effective and well packaged in our phones, computers, seed varieties, and elsewhere that Americans can remain scientifically illiterate, and sometimes even averse to science, while at the same time benefiting from the very advances in science and technology that they blithely deny. Perhaps if we had to understand our technologies in order to use them, we’d have a remarkable spurt in scientific knowledge! Short of that, we must convince our fellow citizens that knowledge of science, and expert knowledge more generally, is vital to our well-being and even survival. Fortunately, Americans overwhelmingly appreciate science even when they don’t cultivate their own knowledge of it. Eighty-four percent of Americans in a recent Pew survey “see science as having a mostly positive effect on society.”8

The mindfulness of knowledge, therefore, properly begins with the recognition of the complexity of our economy and the need for scientific and technical expertise to help manage it. With 7 billion people trying to gain or to maintain a foothold of prosperity on a crowded planet already under unprecedented ecological stress, only advanced technologies—such as high-yield food production, renewable energy sources, sophisticated recycling of industrial materials, and efficiency of resource use—can hope to cope. Perhaps with several billion fewer people on the planet, we could contemplate a reversion to simpler lives. Such hopes today, however appealing they are to some people, are an anachronism. We will have to work hard and fast, and with the best technological tools, to achieve a planet that is prosperous, fair, and sustainable.

One well-meaning variant of antiscience is the illusion that we should revert to simpler ways: all-organic farming, local foods, and preindustrial knowledge. Yet these are illusions as great as denial of climate change. Preindustrial knowledge could support only around one in ten of the planet’s residents today. At this point in human history, we have no choice but to try to live effectively with advanced technologies and to understand them, govern them democratically, and try to ensure that they serve broad human purposes.

Mindfulness of knowledge assuredly does not mean leaving all matters to the experts. Experts do agree on many things, but they have no special talent to make critical choices for all of us when it comes to social values, risks, and priorities. They have their own biases and special interests, and certainly their own blind spots as well. Mindfulness of knowledge therefore requires not only respect for expertise but also respect for democratic governance. We need to identify new ways for the public to share in complex problem solving, advised by experts but with the citizenry given a central role in shaping its own future.

The federal government has done a notably poor job in recent years of encouraging an informed debate about complex policy options. The health care debate during 2009–2010, for example, was held largely behind closed doors. Aside from a few designated experts who participated in the backroom policy deliberations, America’s large and talented public health community mostly watched from the sidelines, as did the general public. Even for me,