Evolution and The Social Age
By Susanne Goldstein on May 2, 2007 in Quotes, The Social Age
Jonas Salk is famous for developing the first polio vaccine. He is celebrated for purposefully NOT patenting it (”can you patent the sun?”, he was known to say) so that the world could benefit from his discovery.
He had these words to say about the evolution of humanity and the dawning of a new age:
“The most meaningful activity in which a human can be engaged is one that is directly related to human evolution. This is true because human beings now play an active and critical role not only in the process of their own evolution but in the survival and evolution of all living beings. Awareness of this places upon human beings a responsibility for their participation in and contribution to the process of evolution. If humankind would accept and acknowledge this responsibility and become creatively engaged in the process of metabiological evolution consciously, as well as unconsciously, a new reality would emerge, and a new age would be born.” - Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995)
I believe that new age has been born, and I call it The Social Age.
The significance of Jonas Salk “open sourcing” his vaccine cannot be underestimated. We’re seeing this more and more — individuals and entities that are open sourcing processes, data sets, vaccines, software platforms, etc.. It will be interesting to see how the patenting of key genomic discoveries will affect the distribution and availability of potentially life saving new medicines and treatments. What would Jonas Salk have to say?
Comment by StevieD -- May 4, 2007 @ 2:32 am
StevieD - I appreciate your comment, and have done quite a bit of thinking about this topic — especially as related to the human genome. Take a look at my paper on Science, Industry & Wealth when you have a minute. You can find it on the Articles & Papers page, or at http://www.thesocialage.com/papers/science_industry_wealth.pdf
Comment by Susanne Goldstein -- May 4, 2007 @ 9:37 am
Thanks — just read your article — addresses my comment right on the nose. I think we’ll see this happen again with energy technologies, too, but it’s more socially acceptable for venture backed startupt to innovate and make billions from a patented new energy technology than it is to profit and protect bio-related IP.
Comment by StevieD -- May 4, 2007 @ 12:40 pm