HUMAN FUTURES FOUNDATION

First, I would like to thank Richard Farson of the WBSI for giving all of us the opportunity to participate in these discussions. Richard was a dear friend of Jonas Salk's--a "think-alike," as Jonas liked to say--and participated with us on many occasions on some of the topics that I hope we will be able to touch upon in the course of this conference.

And second, I would also like to thank in advance those who have agreed to participate, offering their insights and perspectives based upon considerable collective expertise and experience. Looking at the list of participants as a whole, one must again offer thanks to Richard for bringing together such a remarkable group of minds. Sincere thanks to everyone for their interest, time, and commitment.

The subject of C.P. Snow's landmark 1959 essay The Two Cultures held that the division between sciences and the humanities was a major hindrance to solving world problems. The precepts of this iconic work, which Snow wanted to entitle Of Rich and of Poor, have reverberated throughout international academic circles for decades and was resonate with the motivation that inspired scientist and thinker Dr. Jonas Salk to found the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, in the 1960s.

With the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Salk sought to establish an institute where the scientist could work alongside selected artists, writers, philosophers and social scientists synergistically on the problems of the day. Designed with acclaimed architect Louis Kahn, one could say that the Salk-Kahn collaboration was the first phase of Salk's exploration into exchange between the two cultures. Today the Salk Institute stands as one of the world’s preeminent research institutes with more peer review citations published annually than any other research institute of its kind in the world. But the greater dream of Dr. Jonas Salk has fallen short of the mark, a failing not specific to the Institute.

In fact, one could easily argue that the sciences and humanities have never before been more fragmented and separate due, to large degree, to higher levels of specialization. Yet the need for exchange has never been greater, given the higher levels of complexity which operate throughout all levels of society today.

The 2 Cultures Symposium seeks to explore what the 2 Cultures means to the twenty-first century. 

Its aim is twofold: first, to identify barriers to cross-disciplinary dialogue and establish frameworks and approaches for amelioration, if possible; and second, on a deeper level, to explore how dualistic thinking itself inhibits exchange across the whole of the human field and how cross-disciplinary thinking might contribute to new ways of thinking more resonate and better suited to solving the problems we as individuals and as a species face in terms of today and the future.

It was after a lifetime of observing nature and what Salk liked to refer to as "the human side of nature" that he remarked, "Ideas are homologous to genes, only they mutate and evolve at a much higher frequency and at a much faster rate." It may be that the need for cross-disciplinary dialogue has come of age and is now societal mandate as advances in many areas of human endeavor, including, to large extent, scientific progress, have brought to the fore new ethical, philosophical and religious repercussions. As Salk observed, "We are products of the process of evolution and have become part of the process itself."

If we are, in effect, part of the process of evolution, able to tap into the energy locked away within the nucleus of an atom and beginning to manipulate the genes that lie hidden within the nucleus of a cell, mustn't we as a species, make a more concerted effort to deal as effectively with the human mind and its products? 

Given the great diversity that exists in the human realm at this moment in time and the current, ever nebulous, so called "clash of cultures" prevalent today encompassing a far greater scope that Snow's academic notions of the sciences and the humanities, the trajectory into the future will depend as much upon the evolution of human consciousness as it will upon the furtherance of knowledge.

Might it be through cross-disciplinary effort that we, as individuals and as a species, begin to unlock, in a purposeful way, the hidden patterns and connections that exist across the fields of human thought and questioning? In that it has been projected that the world human population may nearly double within the next fifty years, it can be said that those living today are witness to a point of inflection in the human story. 

Many questions remain including do we, as individuals, as professionals and academics, and as societies and governments, have the ability to think in new ways towards a more hopeful and harmonious future? Assuming the desire, how might we begin?

For access to the conference archive, follow this link.  www.wbsi.org/ilfdigest/current