Lambros Malafouris on Empowering Science

Below, Lambros Malafouris responds to the question:

The boundaries of science are continually expanding as scientists become increasingly integral to finding solutions for larger social issues, such as poverty, conflict, financial crises, etc. On what specific issue/problem do you feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear?

I would say that more important than choosing one issue/problem over another is probably to emphasize and reinforce the important role that science in general can play, and indeed it has been playing, when offered the opportunity and given the necessary resources in advancing human wellbeing and quality of life. Given all the pressing environmental and social challenges that humanity is currently facing, science is the only universal collective institution that possesses the will and ability to succeed where the other conventional political and religious institutions and delusions have failed. The scientific ethic of equality, freedom, and radical innovation is the key that would lead us to find sustainable solutions and to build a more intelligent and ecologically-sensitive future for humanity.

Of course, much needs to change before any real step in this direction can be made. For one thing, we need to decentralize our position in our surrounding cosmos and stop taking our world and our humanity for granted. Change is the nature of the human condition and science is the only belief system that puts change at center stage. From a more practical viewpoint, one lesson that scientists can learn from politicians is that when radical changes are needed autonomy is of the essence. In science, like in politics, kinetic force (usually financial) must come from within. External sources, and thus forces (e.g. public opinion or financial powers), will rarely support the dramatic changes that are often really necessary. Here is then the one issue that I feel we need to bring the scientific lens to bear: Scientists and artists need to figure out a way of bringing the responsibility for solving big social issues within the university, changing their roles from that of "expert advisers" to that of "policy makers." More simply we need to turn politics into science, and politicians into scientists. We need to develop a collective "stance," "ethic," and "imagination," in other words the sort of collective "feeling" or emotional intelligence that will enable innovation, creative thinking, and radical change wherever and whenever needed.