America’s current approach to solving the problem of catastrophic terrorism is inexpensive, not especially effective, and erodes our civil liberties in an atmosphere reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. This according to professor emeritus Lewis Branscomb of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a physicist, who will be presenting in Telluride the first public lecture on an extensive study on terrorism conducted by the National Research Council (NRC).

Provocatively, neither Branscomb, who co-chaired the study, nor the NRC uses the phrase, “war on terrorism.” It is their conviction that “this is not a war.”

In an illustrated presentation, sponsored by the Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) and the Telluride Tech Fest, Branscomb’s Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make Us Safer? is sandwiched between a Tech Fest panel discussion on the advancement of intelligent machines and the movie, The Matrix.

But Branscomb’s hour long talk is anything but sci-fi – although he will suggest ways in which emerging and existing technologies can help keep our country safe from catastrophic terrorism. The lecture is free of charge, open to the public, and begins at 5:00 pm, Friday, August 9th at the Nugget Theater.

“In a real war, we accept a kind of authoritarian government with the conviction that victory will restore our freedoms and bring life back to usual,” says Branscomb, who will be expressing his personal concerns about the state of our civil liberties in this talk, as well as the findings of the NRC study.

Branscomb reports that a thoughtful, long-range policy for protecting America from catastrophic terrorism should include scientific research and development into technologies that will simultaneously protect and provide ancillary benefits to civil society. Yet he notes that of the current $37.7 billion budget planned for the new Department of Homeland Security in 2003, only $500 million is earmarked for scientific and technological research.

He also believes that the only long-term solution to countering terrorism, albeit expensive, would incorporate research into stemming global poverty, injustice, religious zealotry, and authoritarian rule.

Recently in an interview, when asked what were the most significant outcomes of the study, Branscomb enunciated in true academic style a cogent list: “Number one: If we want to preserve our civil liberties, science and technology are our best resources for countering terrorism. Number two: Terrorists did not create our vulnerability. Those are the results of a very successful market economy. When we create something that is very efficient, such as our electric power distribution system, we loose resiliency.

“Number three,” he continued, “Most of the critical infrastructure in the our country, which constitutes the vulnerability, is owned by the private sector. The private sector is waiting for the government to indicate to them how to make the infrastructure less vulnerable.

“Number four: At this moment, despite best efforts, the government is almost entirely unprepared to deal with the reality of our vulnerability and to put in place the technologies that are needed to protect the country.

“Number five: The problem of terrorism will not go away. Thus, we must organize our society to live with the vulnerabilities without sacrificing the very freedoms which our politics and economy assumes.

“Number Six,” Branscomb concluded, “When our government sits down to make a technology and science strategy, they should give high priority to picking the technologies that make us both a safer and a better society.”

The study, which Branscomb will report, was initiated by the presidents of the nation’s academies in response to the terrorist attack of 911 last year: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and The Medical Institute.

The Academies chose not to wait until the day the Federal government commissioned such a study, a process that they estimated would have taken at least a year, but rather instead convened an emergency meeting of 50 renowned scientists to poise the question of how best they could assist our national crisis. The outcome of that meeting was to launch a million dollar project through the National Research Council at the Academy’s expense to determine how science and technology could help in countering terrorism.

Throughout the next months, they recruited nearly 120 of the nation's leading scientists and engineers to volunteer their research efforts to study the problem of catastrophic terrorism – something they needed to define.

Eight months later the report was ready for publication, an undertaking that would normally have taken two years. Branscomb and his co-chair, Richard D. Klausner, executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, presented the Council’s work to the White House and Congress recently in late June. And the study, written by 24 scientists, was published in paperback by the National Academy Press on August 2, 2002 entitled Making The Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism.

The report made 134 specific recommendations for advancements in scientific and technological research, as well as the immediate employment of existing technologies, which Branscomb will touch upon on Friday: “Our report gives the government a blueprint for using current technologies and creating new capabilities to reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks and the severity of their consequences.”

In the report, the authors note that beyond our borders, “many of the technical solutions that we develop for the United States to make our nation safer will also be useful for protecting the citizens and facilities of other nations . . . This report therefore represents only the first step in what must become a long and continuing global effort to spread peace and prosperity to every nation.”

Despite the fast-track nature of the report, accuracy was paramount. “This report was vetted by 46 expert ‘referees’ who were not part of the study,” Branscomb said.

A practicing physicist throughout most of his career, Branscomb is currently an emeritus professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at Harvard University and an elected member of all three Academies. He was Chief Scientist and Vice President of IBM from 1972 to 1986, and served as Chairman of the National Science Board from 1980 to 1984. He has been the recipient of numerous, prestigious awards.

Locally, Branscomb is an active citizen, serving on the Advisory Council of the Pinhead Institute, the Board of Directors of the Telluride Tech Fest, and the Board of the Telluride Science Research Center. His family foundation gave one of the largest private donations to the construction of the new Wilkinson Public Library, with the library’s garden terrace dedicated to his late wife, Anne Wells Branscomb, who fell in love with Telluride in the 1960s. Lewis Branscomb first came to Telluride about ten years ago and now lives part-time in the Mountain Village.

Branscomb recognizes the irony of presenting this report on terrorism publicly for the first time in one of the least likely places to be hit by a terrorist target.

For more information about the lecture call the Tech Fest office at 970-728-0945. To get a copy of the book Making The Nation Safer, borrow one from the Wilkinson Library, or order your own copy before September 31st, 2002 at a 20-percent discount (code 8481) at www.nap.edu or by calling 888-624-7645.

August 7, 2002
Nana Naisbitt, Executive Director Pinhead Institute
970-728-0713 tele
970-708-0004 cell
nana@pinheadinstitute.org